[rhn-users] manipulating linux partitions

[Paul A. Kennedy]

On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 07:33:24AM +0200, espen.ekeroth at om.com wrote:
> This thread points at what I would say is one of the problems with linux
> today - the lack of a standard tool for working with file systems. I have
> been working with HP-UX for some years, and the abillity to enlarge and
> change file systems while they are in use are very nice to have when the
> system is in production. The HP-UX tool is not perfect (you may not
> downsize a filesystem without creating a new one and copy the files
> [downtime]), but other tasks like moving a filesystem from one disk to
> another may be done in runtime.

A lot of the funtionality of which you speak is available as part of
LVM in Linux.  With enough planning, most of this (perhaps even all)
could have been painless.

The problem that I see is that not enough planning is done when people
set up systems.  The problem presented is absolutely classic 'how do I
simply fix a bad partitioning choice now?'  The answer is that you
can't and you don't.

The question that should have been asked when the machine was set up
is 'what is my migration path when I find that I need more space on
one of my partitions'.  If that question had been answered at the time
the machine was set up, then this person wouldn't have been in such a
bind now.

Paul


> [snip...]

> > I have redhat enterprise WS installed on my computer partitioned as
> > shown below.  How do i manipulate partitions and resize them? Example,
> > how do i reduce /usr and expand /var.  Thanks in advance for any inputs.
> >
> > Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/hda7            1012M  275M  686M  29% /
> > none                     0     0     0   -  /proc
> > none                     0     0     0   -  /dev/pts
> > usbdevfs                 0     0     0   -  /proc/bus/usb
> > /dev/hda1            1012M   38M  923M   4% /boot
> > /dev/hda2              20G  1.4G   17G   8% /home
> > none                  503M     0  503M   0% /dev/shm
> > /dev/hda3             2.0G   61M  1.9G   4% /tmp
> > /dev/hda8              48G  2.5G   43G   6% /usr
> > /dev/hda6            1012M  313M  648M  33% /var
> >
> > System Info:
> > redhat-release-3WS-7.2
> > Linux 2.4.21-15.EL i386 GNU/Linux