Growing the Root Partition on the Server

last updated on January 11, 2024

Cloud

For all Nasuni Access Anywhere Deployments running in: AWS, Azure, and GCP, deployed from the marketplace images:

Nasuni Access Anywhere Server server images for the cloud use one partition and support autogrow.

In order to grow the disk size, first shutdown the NAA server during a maintenace window:

sudo shutdown -h now

Once the machine has been fully shutdown, follow the Cloud providers documentation for growing a disk size: Azure - Expanding OS Disk in Portal

AWS - Example Increase the size of the data volume

GCP - Increase the size of a persistent disk

After you have completed the steps in the relevant cloud consoles to make the disk size larger, start the machine back up.

You can verify the size has increased once the Nasuni Access Anywhere Appliance has started by running the following commands and verifying disk space:

sudo df -hT | grep /$

On Premises

Over time the way disk space is provisioned on appliance VMs has changed. Growing the root partition depends on the starting version of the server and not the current running release. This document will guide the user through finding the proper method of root partition growth.

It is important to backup or snapshot the server before growing the root partition. Issues arising from improperly executing the instructions can result in an inoperable system which would only be recoverable by restoring the backup or reverting the snapshot.

Note: Starting with the 2006 build of the server the root and database partitions are set up for automatic growth. To grow the root partition on virtual machines that were originally created as v2006 or later, simply increase the size of the disk and reboot the appliance. To determine if the appliance has autogrow run the following as root:

if [ `grep growfs /etc/rc.local |wc -l` == 1 ]; then echo "Autogrow is enabled"; fi

If the message “Autogrow is enabled” is displayed, then this appliance supports autogrowing of partitions.

If the message “Autogrow is enabled” is not displayed then use the following procedure to determine the appropriate expansion method for growing the root partition on your server.

Determining Appropriate Expansion Method

In the instructions that follow, some partition names have the letter ‘s’ immediately following the second slash, for example:

/dev/sda1

In other cases the partition name has the letter ‘v’ immediately following the second slash, for example:

/dev/vda1

For the purpose of following these instructions, the distinction does not matter.

The ‘a’ preceding the number at the end of the partition name is, however, significant. It indicates the device (disk) on which the device resides, These instructions are only concerned with partitions on the device identified by the letter ‘a’. If your server has more than one device then you may see partition names with other letters besides ‘a’. For the purposes of this document, they should be ignored.

Log into the console as smeconfiguser and then become root by running:

su -

Next run fdisk to list the drives and partitions on the appliance:

fdisk -l

One of three layouts will be present in the results.

Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Partition

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     1050623      524288   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         1050624    72359935    35654656   8e  Linux LVM

If the second partition is of Id type 8e, “Linux LVM”, then the appliance is using LVM and the LVM-partition-expansion directions should be followed.

Swap Partition at End

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *        2048     1050623      524288   83  Linux
/dev/vda2         1050624    55576575    27262976   83  Linux
/dev/vda3        55576576    72353791     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris

If three partitions are present for the device and the last one is of type 82 “Linux swap / Solaris”, then follow the swap-partition-at-end directions.

Swap Partition Before Root

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *        2048     1050623      524288   83  Linux
/dev/vda2         1050624    17827839     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/vda3        17827840    75497471    28834816   83  Linux

If three partitions are present and the second one is of type 82 “Linux swap / Solaris”, then follow the swap-partition-before-root directions.