Resize disks online for Linux instances

Step 1: Create a snapshot

Create a snapshot for the disk to back up the data on the disk before you resize the disk.

1. Log on to the ECS console.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Instances.
3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
4. Find the instance whose disk you want to resize, and click the instance ID to go to the Instance Details page.
5. In the left-side navigation pane, click Disks.
6. Find the disk to be resized, and click Create Snapshot in the Actions column.
7. In the dialog box that appears, enter a snapshot name, bind a tag, and then click Create.
8. In the left-side navigation pane, click Snapshots to view the created snapshot.
   When 100% appears in the Progress column corresponding to the snapshot, the snapshot is created. You can continue to perform the following operations.

Step 2: Resize the disk in the console

1. In the left-side navigation pane of the Instance Details page, click Disks.
2. Find the disk to be resized and choose More > Resize Disk in the Actions column.

   To batch resize disks, log on to the ECS console by using your Alibaba Cloud account and choose Storage & Snapshots > Disks in the left-side navigation pane. On the Disks page, select the disks that you want to resize, and then click Resize Disk in the lower part of the page. Disks that are attached to the same instance cannot be batch resized.

3. On the Resize Disks page, select Online Resizing, and set the Size after Resize parameter.
   The specified Size after Resize value cannot be less than the current capacity.
4. Verify the price. Read and select ECS Service Terms, and then click Confirm.
5. Read the notes, and click I have read the notes. Resize to complete the payment.

Step 3: View the disk partitions

Log on to the ECS instance to view the partition types (such as MBR and GPT) and file system types (such as ext4 and xfs) of the system disks and data disks. Subsequent resizing operations vary based on the types of the partitions and file systems.

1. Connect to the ECS instance. For more information, see Connect to a Linux instance by using VNC.
2. Run the fdisk -lu command to view the disks attached to the instance.
   The following figure shows the three partitions of a system disk (/dev/vda1) and two data disks (/dev/vdb1 and /dev/vdc1).

   No	Partition	Description
   ①	/dev/vda1	A partition of the system disk. The Linux value of System indicates that the system disk is partitioned in the MBR format.
   ②	/dev/vdb1	A partition of a data disk. The Linux value of System indicates that the data disk is partitioned in the MBR format.
   ③	/dev/vdc1	A partition of a data disk. The GPT value of System indicates that the data disk is partitioned in the GPT format.

3. Run the df -Th command to check the file system types of the existing partitions.
   

Step 4: Resize partitions

By checking the disk partitions, you can find that the partitions and file systems within the ECS instance have not been resized. This procedure describes how to resize the partitions of the resized disk within the ECS instance.

1. Install the gdisk tool on the ECS instance.
   You must perform this step if the partition is in the GPT format. Skip this step if the partition is in the MBR format.

   yum install gdisk -y

2. Run the growpart /dev/vda 1 command to resize partitions.
   The partition of the system disk is resized in this example. Use a space to separate /dev/vda and 1. To resize other partitions, modify the command accordingly.

Step 5: Resize file systems

This procedure describes how to resize the file system of a partition within an ECS instance.

1. Resize the file system within the ECS instance based on the file system type that you queried in Step 3.
   • Resize the ext* (such as ext4) file system: Run the resize2fs /dev/vda1 command.

     # To resize the file system of the /dev/vda1 partition of the system disk, run the following command:
     resize2fs /dev/vda1
     
     # To resize the file system of the /dev/vdb1 partition of a data disk, run the following command:
     resize2fs /dev/vdb1          

     Note /dev/vda1 and /dev/vdb1 are partition names. Change the commands based on your partition names.
   • Resize the xfs file system: Run the xfs_growfs /media/vdccommand.
     Note /media/vdc is the mount point of the/dev/vdc1 partition. Change the command based on the mount point of your partition.
2. Run the df -Th command to check the resizing results.
   
   After the disk is resized, check whether the new capacity of the disk is consistent with the expected results.

   • If the resizing succeeds and the business programs in the instance can run properly, the resizing operation is complete.
   • If the resizing fails, use the backup snapshot to roll back the disk.

Operating systems that support resizing online

FAQ

• Problem description: When the growpart /dev/vda 1 command is run, the unexpected output in sfdisk --version [sfdisk, from util-linux 2.23.2] error is prompted.
  Solution:

  1. Run the LANG=en_US.UTF-8 command to switch the character encoding type of the ECS instance.
  2. If the problem persists, run the reboot command to restart the ECS instance.
  3. If the problem persists, run the localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8 command to change the local environment variable, and then restart the instance.
• Problem description: When the growpart /dev/vda 1 command is run, the -bash: growpart: command not found error is prompted.
  Solution:

  1. Run the uname -a command to check whether the version of the Linux kernel is 3.6.0 or later.

     If the version of the Linux kernel is earlier than 3.6.0, you can refer to Procedure for instances with kernels earlier than 3.6.0 and Resize partitions and file systems of Linux data disks to extend partitions of a disk on the Linux instance.

  2. Install the growpart tool based on the version of the Linux kernel.
     • CentOS 7 and later: Run the yum install -y cloud-utils-growpart command.
     • Debian 9 and later, or Ubuntu14 and later: Run the apt install -y cloud-guest-utils command.

Other scenarios for disk resizing

• If you want to create partitions on the resized disk, see Option 2: Add and format MBR partitionsor Option 4: Add and format GPT partitions.
• If no partition is created on your data disk and a file system is created on the raw device, see Option 5: Resize the file system of a raw data disk to extend the file system.