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Current state of online LUN-resize and Enterprise Linux

 
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Adam Garsha
Valued Contributor

Current state of online LUN-resize and Enterprise Linux

I check in on this from time to time. What is the current state of support for online LUN-resizing on an array (e.g. EVA) and propigating the changes to increase a Linux filesystem's size.

I am not interested in hearing about creating new LUNs to increase filesystem size (I understand all these concepts).

Does the approach depend on FC cards or is there now a standard set of Linux utilities to achieve an __ONLINE__ resize?

Thanks.
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Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor
Solution

Re: Current state of online LUN-resize and Enterprise Linux

Shalom,

The current state has not changed very much. You normally must reboot a system to recognized increased space. The rebuild option you mention above is the way it normally needs to be done.

If you have HP servers and fully supported HBA cards with your EVA it may be possible to bypass the rebuild requirement, but thus far I haven't seen it.

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Steven E Protter
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Rick Beldin
HPE Pro

Re: Current state of online LUN-resize and Enterprise Linux

I think it depends...

On RHEL4 (2.6) if you have a disk partition (lun?) that is LARGER than your ext2/ext3 filesystem, you can use ext2online to resize the *filesystem* larger. Again, the partition in which the filesystem resides *must* be *larger* than what you started with - it will not expand the size of the partition in which it resides. You could use parted to resize the partition...

There are caveats. filesystems created under earlier versions of the OS (RHEL3) have attributes that prevent successful resizing.

I would suggest LVM for more standardized resizing capabilities at this time.
Necessary questions: Why? What? How? When?
Adam Garsha
Valued Contributor

Re: Current state of online LUN-resize and Enterprise Linux

RE: HP-UX

If you use the veritas 4.1+ stuff you can resize with "vxdisk resize" prior to "vxresize"

I've heard that you can do this with LVM stuff in 11.31 "Dynamic LUN expansion"

You can do it (expand LUN) in Tru64 and Windows for years.
Adam Garsha
Valued Contributor

Re: Current state of online LUN-resize and Enterprise Linux

Sorry, ignore post just above. Pasted in wrong place.