The client uses VMWare as virtualization platform for the Oracle Database VMs (yes, he is aware of the License implications).
The VM is running out of space in two partitions. The VMWare Admin extended the disks on their platform. Now I need to make this extension visible in Oracle Linux. This things we do once every 10 years, when versions, filesystems and tools already changed.
For this post in 2025, I’m using Oracle Linux 9, xfs filesystems. All operation are online, with databases running.
I divide this post in two parts:
- Part 1 – extend mountpoint alone in a block device (/u02 in the table below) – more detailed explanations
- Part 2 – extend a specific mountpoint within several partitions in a block device (/u01 in the table below)
Extend a mountpoint within several partitions in a block device
oracle@vmware-vm01 MIG01C $ cat /etc/system-release
Oracle Linux Server release 9.6
The partition tree is below, and I need to increase the /u01 from 50G to 100G. The disk is /dev/sda
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 774G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 250M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─sda3 8:3 0 77G 0 part
├─ol_vmware-vm02-root 252:0 0 10G 0 lvm /
├─ol_vmware-vm02-swap 252:1 0 4G 0 lvm [SWAP]
├─ol_vmware-vm02-var_log_audit 252:2 0 1G 0 lvm /var/log/audit
├─ol_vmware-vm02-u01 252:3 0 50G 0 lvm /u01
├─ol_vmware-vm02-home 252:4 0 5G 0 lvm /home
├─ol_vmware-vm02-var_log 252:5 0 2G 0 lvm /var/log
└─ol_vmware-vm02-var 252:6 0 5G 0 lvm /var
sdb 8:16 0 100G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 0 100G 0 part
└─vg_u02-lv_u02 252:7 0 100G 0 lvm /u02
First thing to do in a VMWare environment is to rescan the device, after that the disk was extended by VMWare admins.
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# echo 1>/sys/class/block/sda/device/rescan
Now we can already see that the /dev/sda device is 600GB, which can be used for all partitions under it
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# parted /dev/sda print
Model: VMware Virtual disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 644GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 263MB 262MB fat16 EFI System Partition boot, esp
2 263MB 1337MB 1074MB xfs
3 1337MB 84.0GB 82.7GB lvm
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# lsblk /dev/sda
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 600G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 250M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─sda3 8:3 0 77G 0 part
├─ol_vmware-vm01-root 252:0 0 10G 0 lvm /
├─ol_vmware-vm01-swap 252:1 0 4G 0 lvm [SWAP]
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var_log_audit 252:3 0 1G 0 lvm /var/log/audit
├─ol_vmware-vm01-home 252:4 0 5G 0 lvm /home
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var 252:5 0 5G 0 lvm /var
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var_log 252:6 0 2G 0 lvm /var/log
└─ol_vmware-vm01-u01 252:7 0 50G 0 lvm /u01
The key element from the output above is, I need to increase the partition where the /u01 mountpoint is located. In my case it is the third partition /dev/sda3 which has now 77GB. The parted command shows the size (82.7GB) and the end point of the partition (84GB). The resize command lets to change the end point. I decide to move it to 150G.
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# parted /dev/sda "resizepart 3 150G"
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# lsblk /dev/sda
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 600G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 250M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─sda3 8:3 0 138.5G 0 part
├─ol_vmware-vm01-root 252:0 0 10G 0 lvm /
├─ol_vmware-vm01-swap 252:1 0 4G 0 lvm [SWAP]
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var_log_audit 252:3 0 1G 0 lvm /var/log/audit
├─ol_vmware-vm01-home 252:4 0 5G 0 lvm /home
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var 252:5 0 5G 0 lvm /var
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var_log 252:6 0 2G 0 lvm /var/log
└─ol_vmware-vm01-u01 252:7 0 50G 0 lvm /u01
Now I need to make it visible to the physical volume, using pvresize:
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# pvdisplay /dev/sda3
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda3
VG Name ol_vmware-vm01
PV Size <77.01 GiB / not usable 4.00 MiB
Allocatable yes
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 19713
Free PE 1
Allocated PE 19712
PV UUID nc8Cay-LXfL-3eIc-iJSM-cAhh-rh1V-tZ8rba
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# pvresize /dev/sda3
Physical volume "/dev/sda3" changed
1 physical volume(s) resized or updated / 0 physical volume(s) not resized
And extend the logical volume associated with /u01 to 100% of the volume group.
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# lvextend -l 100%VG /dev/mapper/ol_vmware-vm01-u01
Reducing 100%VG to remaining free space <111.45 GiB in VG.
Size of logical volume ol_vmware-vm01/u01 changed from 50.00 GiB (12800 extents) to <111.45 GiB (28531 extents).
Logical volume ol_vmware-vm01/u01 successfully resized.
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# lsblk /dev/sda
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 600G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 250M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─sda3 8:3 0 138.5G 0 part
├─ol_vmware-vm01-root 252:0 0 10G 0 lvm /
├─ol_vmware-vm01-swap 252:1 0 4G 0 lvm [SWAP]
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var_log_audit 252:3 0 1G 0 lvm /var/log/audit
├─ol_vmware-vm01-home 252:4 0 5G 0 lvm /home
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var 252:5 0 5G 0 lvm /var
├─ol_vmware-vm01-var_log 252:6 0 2G 0 lvm /var/log
└─ol_vmware-vm01-u01 252:7 0 111.4G 0 lvm /u01
At the end I increase the xfs filesystem of the mountpoint with xfs_growfs:
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# df -Th /u01
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ol_vmware-vm01-u01 xfs 50G 47G 3.5G 94% /u01
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# xfs_growfs /dev/mapper/ol_vmware-vm01-u01
meta-data=/dev/mapper/ol_vmware-vm01-u01 isize=512 agcount=4, agsize=3276800 blks
= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1
= crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=0
= reflink=1 bigtime=1 inobtcount=1 nrext64=0
= exchange=0
data = bsize=4096 blocks=13107200, imaxpct=25
= sunit=0 swidth=0 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0, ftype=1, parent=0
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=16384, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
data blocks changed from 13107200 to 29215744
[root@vmware-vm01 ~]# df -Th /u01
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ol_vmware-vm01-u01 xfs 112G 47G 65G 43% /u01