Hence there is not any user interface functionality, starting from Virtualbox 4.0 there is a way to extend the .vdi virtual disk sizes. "VboxManage" supports to extend and change the .vdi virtual disk attributes. "VboxManage" executable can be found in the following paths of the related operating systems.
--Using Windows as a Host # "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VboxManage.exe" modifyhd virtual_hard_disk_name.vdi --resize size_in_mb --Using Mac as a Host # /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage modifyhd virtual_hard_disk_name.vdi --resize size_in_mb --Using Linux as a Host # VBoxManage modifyhd virtual_hard_disk_name.vdi --resize size_in_mb # "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VboxManage.exe" list hdds UUID: f7a2fda3-c730-465a-b022-8ee89e48a093 Parent UUID: base State: locked write Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_root.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 10240 MBytes UUID: 2be1f81e-b86b-41fe-9268-8622b5f4e4ec Parent UUID: base State: locked write Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle01.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 20480 MBytes UUID: e62699cc-19dc-4e34-bf09-8e1a9ac6b415 Parent UUID: base State: locked write Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle02.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 20480 MBytes UUID: 2d2d2490-d8a3-4184-bf54-02d874264f1b Parent UUID: base State: locked write Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle03.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 20480 MBytes UUID: 3d4385bf-ac3b-4ae7-a3f3-13c14fac4ff5 Parent UUID: base State: locked write Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle04.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 30720 MBytes
Virtual drives of the Virtualbox can be extended by using the following command (Please refer to your installation directory of the virtualbox to locate and execute the VboxManage.exe). VboxManage accepts either the full path of the virtual disk or the UUID of the disk. I prefered the UUID to extend.
# "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VboxManage.exe" modifyhd 2d2d2490-d8a3-4184-bf54-02d874264f1b --resize 30170 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
As you can examine from the following output that the disk UUID 2d2d2490-d8a3-4184-bf54-02d874264f1b is extended from 20480MB to 30720MB successfully.
# "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VboxManage.exe" list hdds UUID: f7a2fda3-c730-465a-b022-8ee89e48a093 Parent UUID: base State: created Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_root.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 10240 MBytes UUID: 2be1f81e-b86b-41fe-9268-8622b5f4e4ec Parent UUID: base State: created Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle01.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 20480 MBytes UUID: e62699cc-19dc-4e34-bf09-8e1a9ac6b415 Parent UUID: base State: created Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle02.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 20480 MBytes UUID: 2d2d2490-d8a3-4184-bf54-02d874264f1b Parent UUID: base State: created Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle03.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 30720 MBytes UUID: 3d4385bf-ac3b-4ae7-a3f3-13c14fac4ff5 Parent UUID: base State: created Type: normal (base) Location: E:\VirtualBox VMs\rhel6\rhel6_oracle04.vdi Storage format: VDI Capacity: 30720 MBytes
The rest of the operations will be held in the virtual host, which is RHEL6.2 64bit with logical volume manager used.
First /dev/sd* devices should be rescanned. I used /sbin/partprobe and then a reboot because all my devices where mounted. In order not to reboot, all devices should be unmounted first.
After the reboot, checking with fdisk gives the updated disk size of 30Gb. But the problem is the partition itself. The partition is still 20G and there is a way to extend it which is simply removing and recreating it. But, the thing is, i dont want to lose the data inside this partition which is a part of my volume group. After some investigation, I learned that if I delete the partition and create it with same SystemID (8e - Linux LVM) and stating from the very same starting block my data should not be lost. This worths trying.
# fdisk /dev/sdc
WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
sectors (command 'u').
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdc: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00079340
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 2611 20970496 8e Linux LVM
Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-3916, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-3916, default 3916):
Using default value 3916
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e
Changed system type of partition 1 to 8e (Linux LVM)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdc: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00079340
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 3916 31454246 8e Linux LVM
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.
After the reboot it seems the partition is extended successfully and my LVM works fine. Next, I should extend my physical volume pv's.# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 9.9G 7.1G 2.3G 76% / tmpfs 2.0G 100K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm /dev/mapper/vg_oracle-lv_oracle 30G 17G 12G 61% /oracle /dev/mapper/vg_oracle-lv_oradata 60G 53G 3.2G 95% /oradata shmfs 2.0G 100K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm shared 120G 94G 26G 79% /media/sf_shared /dev/sr0 62M 62M 0 100% /media/VBOXADDITIONS_4.3.4_91027 # pvresize /dev/sdc1 30720 Physical volume "/dev/sdc1" changed Failed to read physical volume "30720" 1 physical volume(s) resized / 0 physical volume(s) not resized # pvdisplay /dev/sdc1 --- Physical volume --- PV Name /dev/sdc1 VG Name vg_oracle PV Size 30.00 GiB / not usable 986.00 KiB Allocatable yes PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 7679 Free PE 2560 Allocated PE 5119 PV UUID bkjcdV-ZOMc-0pSe-BfcW-pbny-ka4f-MiDBFO # vgdisplay --- Volume group --- VG Name vg_oracle System ID Format lvm2 Metadata Areas 4 Metadata Sequence No 21 VG Access read/write VG Status resizable MAX LV 0 Cur LV 2 Open LV 2 Max PV 0 Cur PV 4 Act PV 4 VG Size 109.98 GiB PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 28156 Alloc PE / Size 23015 / 89.90 GiB Free PE / Size 5141 / 20.08 GiB VG UUID 9ERVOu-ATwS-j7H5-5vce-PLj9-3aG9-c7biBO
with a couple of reboots it seems that it is possible to extend the virtual disks of Virtualbox without dataloss... Cheers..
