How to Extend a LVM Partition on an Ubuntu VM

We have an Ubuntu 20.04 VM running under VMware. The users reported that the root partition is running out of free space. We first deleted some unused files, and it’s still not enough. The user decicded to increase the virtual disk size. After the increase of the virtual disk size, the OS does not recognize the increase automatically. Additional work is needed.

First problem I had is that I got this warning whenever I use the pvdisplay command:

WARNING: PV /dev/sda5 in VG ubuntuos is using an old PV header, modify the VG to update.

To fix this problem, I typed in this command to update the PV header:

vgck --updatemetadata ubuntuos

Let’s take a look of the physical volumes and logical volumes on my VM.

# pvdisplay -m
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sda5
  VG Name               ubuntuos
  PV Size               49.52 GiB / not usable 2.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              12677
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          12677
  PV UUID               bVLY9f-TeqI-MWL8-ClLq-s0jg-DKtx-ZjSNf1

  --- Physical Segments ---
  Physical extent 0 to 12164:
    Logical volume      /dev/ubuntuos/root
    Logical extents     0 to 12164
  Physical extent 12165 to 12676:
    Logical volume      /dev/ubuntuos/swap_1
    Logical extents     0 to 511

  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sdb
  VG Name               ubuntuos
  PV Size               150.00 GiB / not usable 4.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              38399
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          38399
  PV UUID               BiYKGF-dRxj-SjO1-RHhK-IcLk-fYUL-KmUMZF

  --- Physical Segments ---
  Physical extent 0 to 38398:
    Logical volume      /dev/ubuntuos/root
    Logical extents     12165 to 50563

# lvdisplay -m
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/ubuntuos/root
  LV Name                root
  VG Name                ubuntuos
  LV UUID                uzEY5B-BYzA-D2c5-1ajf-fpp6-2Vrb-uNrYyC
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time ubuntu16-generic-template-01, 2017-06-30 08:41:06 -0400
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                <197.52 GiB
  Current LE             50564
  Segments               2
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:0

  --- Segments ---
  Logical extents 0 to 12164:
    Type                linear
    Physical volume     /dev/sda5
    Physical extents    0 to 12164

  Logical extents 12165 to 50563:
    Type                linear
    Physical volume     /dev/sdb
    Physical extents    0 to 38398


  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/ubuntuos/swap_1
  LV Name                swap_1
  VG Name                ubuntuos
  LV UUID                bmOnUR-0jWp-P89p-uskY-wT4Q-yX2G-C56F2s
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time ubuntu16-generic-template-01, 2017-06-30 08:41:06 -0400
  LV Status              available
  # open                 2
  LV Size                2.00 GiB
  Current LE             512
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           253:1

  --- Segments ---
  Logical extents 0 to 511:
    Type                linear
    Physical volume     /dev/sda5
    Physical extents    12165 to 12676

The logical volume /dev/ubuntuos/root has two segments: /dev/sda5 and /dev/sdb. /dev/sdb is the increased virtual disk. The size has been increased from 150 GB to 250 GB. However, the system does not recognize the increase. I typed in this command to resize the physical volume:

pvresize /dev/sdb

Now that the physical volume size is fixed, I can extend the logical volume by using this command:

lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/ubuntuos/root

Finally, I can grow the file system to utilize the extra space. The file system is xfs, so I used this command:

xfs_growfs -d /dev/mapper/ubuntuos-root

If you have a ext4 file system, use the command resize2fs to resize it.