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I'm having some problems trying to extend a Disk. I'm using a VMware Debian 9 virtual machine on an ESXi host.

After extending the virtual disk-size by 32 GB and rebooting the VM I see: 

bob@apollo:~$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   0   64G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   16G  0 part /var/lib/jenkins
└─sdb2   8:18   0   16G  0 part /var/www

bob@apollo:~$ mount | grep sdb
/dev/sdb2 on /var/www type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
/dev/sdb1 on /var/lib/jenkins type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)

bob@apollo:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.29.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

GPT PMBR size mismatch (67108863 != 134217727) will be corrected by w(rite).
GPT PMBR size mismatch (67108863 != 134217727) will be corrected by w(rite).

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 64 GiB, 68719476736 bytes, 134217728 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 513133B6-1030-427A-8950-E43374665229

Device        Start      End  Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1      2048 33554431 33552384  16G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb2  33554432 67106815 33552384  16G Linux filesystem

The technique that I've learned about from lurking on this site is to use fdisk to delete the partition and create a new, bigger one. I'm hoping the necessary write will also solve the GPT PMBR size mismatch that I see with fdisk.

bob@apollo:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.29.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

GPT PMBR size mismatch (67108863 != 134217727) will be corrected by w(rite).
GPT PMBR size mismatch (67108863 != 134217727) will be corrected by w(rite).

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2

Partition 2 has been deleted.

Command (m for help): n
Partition number (2-128, default 2): 2
First sector (33554432-67108830, default 33554432): 
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (33554432-67108830, default 67108830): 134217728
Value out of range.
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (33554432-67108830, default 67108830): 

Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 16 GiB.
Partition #2 contains a ext4 signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: n

Command (m for help): w
GPT PMBR size mismatch (67108863 != 134217727) will be corrected by w(rite).
fdisk: failed to write disklabel: Invalid argument
bob@apollo:~$

So a lot of things happened here

  1. /dev/sdb now has 134,217,728 sectors. But the "valid range" only goes up to the old 67,108,830.
  2. When I do 'recreate' partition 2 with its original size and try to write the changes, fdisk crashes with 'Invalid argument'.

How can I extend the volume

Stewart
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1 Answers1

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fdisk isn't good at working with GPT tables. First repair the GPT table with parted: 

bob@apollo:~$ sudo parted -l

Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sdb appears to be used, you can
fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 67108864 blocks) or continue with
the current setting? 
Fix/Ignore? F                                                             
Model: VMware Virtual disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 68.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags
 1      1049kB  17.2GB  17.2GB  ext4         primary
 2      17.2GB  34.4GB  17.2GB  ext4         primary

Second, stop any services which access these disks and unmount the disk: 

bob@apollo:~$ sudo systemctl stop jenkins.service
bob@apollo:~$ sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
bob@apollo:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1
bob@apollo:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdb2

Third, extend the partition like you originally intended:

bob@apollo:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.29.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 64 GiB, 68719476736 bytes, 134217728 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 513133B6-1030-427A-8950-E43374665229

Device        Start       End   Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1      2048  33554431  33552384  16G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb2  33554432 134217694 100663263  48G Linux filesystem

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2

Partition 2 has been deleted.

Command (m for help): n
Partition number (2-128, default 2): 2
First sector (33554432-134217694, default 33554432): 
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (33554432-134217694, default 134217694): 

Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 48 GiB.
Partition #2 contains a ext4 signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: n

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Surprisingly, you don't need to remount anything from /dev/sdb, it is done after writing to /dev/sdb. If you review the mount-points, the data should still be there. Start up your services again to get everything working like it was.

Stewart
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