How to remove the EXT3 vmimages partition to extend the vmfs partition

[yvesk]

Hello,

I'm new to vmware and I setup my first Esx with a partitioning scheme relating to esx2.x

So I have a EXT3 vmimages partition no longer required (my images are on a nfs share), and on the other hand I need more room for the vmfs partition.

So the question is: How to remove the vmfs partition and the ext3 partition to create a new one.

Or tho shrink the vmimages partition to the smallest size and create a new vmfs partition if it is not recomanded to remove the vmimages

Thanks for your advice

\# vdf

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 3099292 1177760 1764096 41% /

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 101089 29329 66541 31% /boot

/dev/cciss/c0d0p7 3099260 32848 2908980 2% /home

none 134124 0 134124 0% /dev/shm

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8 3099260 33412 2908416 2% /tmp

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6 4127076 169240 3748192 5% /var

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5 28898080 2444312 24985832 9% /vmimages

/vmfs/devices 97867362 0 97867362 0% /vmfs/devices

/vmfs/volumes/45ddc797-3a745810-d716-0019bbca8694

26214400 13477888 12736512 51% /vmfs/volumes/storage1

[pdrace]

>So the question is: How to remove the vmfs partition and the ext3 >partition to create a new one.

I think the easiest way to accomplish this may be to reinstall.

If you don't want to do that you will end up with two local VMFS partitions or using extents if you remove the vmimages ext3 partition.

I'm not familiar with them on Linux it but I assume fdisk or parted would be used to edit the ext3 partitions.

Vmkfstools or the VC interface would be used to add a new VMFS partiton or add an extent to an existing one.

[yvesk]

Yes I know that all can be done with a fresh install.

I'm new to linux, and i appreciate to go to linux with the help of vmware.

So I don't wan't to reinstall. I'm quite sure that if the two partition are deleted then it will be possible to create a new one, even if we should make and extend.

So i expect to have to deal with fdisk maybe fstab, but I'm not familiar with and I will appreciate a more in deep explanation.

Here is my df

]# df

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 3099292 1177764 1764092 41% /

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 101089 29329 66541 31% /boot

/dev/cciss/c0d0p7 3099260 32848 2908980 2% /home

none 134124 0 134124 0% /dev/shm

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8 3099260 33412 2908416 2% /tmp

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6 4127076 169288 3748144 5% /var

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5 28898080 2444312 24985832 9% /vmimages

here my fdisk -l

\# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 73.3 GB, 73372631040 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8920 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 14 405 3148740 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 406 666 2096482+ 82 Linux swap

/dev/cciss/c0d0p4 667 8920 66300255 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5 667 4321 29358756 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6 4322 4843 4192933+ 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p7 4844 5235 3148708+ 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8 5236 5627 3148708+ 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p9 5628 8906 26338536 fb Unknown

/dev/cciss/c0d0p10 8907 8920 112423+ fc Unknown

Thanks for your advice

.

[pdrace]

You could try deleting the ext3 partition using parted, run man parted at the command prompt to get the proper syntax. I don't know if you can delete a VMFS partiton with parted.

You can try removing it in virtual center but I'm not sure if it will allow you to destroy the only vmfs partition.

The other issue is that to create a new partition that will contain one vmfs file system in the free space I believe the partitions you deleted would have needed to be contiguous (next to each other) to begin with.

If that's the case you would end up creating two new partitions with two seperate vmfs filesystems or create one and add the other partiton as an extent to make it one.

I've never tried this so it's all speculation on my part.

[Topski]

hi there,

pretty easy, just did it myself as a complete linux nitwit.

just go into fdisk, delete the partitions you do not want, write out the partition table (you need to boot, I think because the swap is on, you can turn this off first maybe with swapoff -a), when you;re back from reboot, open a shell and type swapoff, then move into VC client, select the local storage and choose add extend.

That's pretty it.

BR,

Ronald