shrinking root partition and using free space to create a block device


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Operating Systems Linux shrinking root partition and using free space to create a block device
# 1  
Old 02-03-2009
shrinking root partition and using free space to create a block device

We are intending to protect a set of user specified files using LVM mirroring where the protected space on which the user files are stored is mirrored on an LV on a different disk. Our problem is that for a user with a custom layout has installed linux with 2 partitons for swap and / and there is no other space available on the primary disk where we can store the files to be protected tht is mirrored across other disk, so we intend to allocate some space on the primary disk that can be used as a LV that is mirrored across an LV on different disk.
What can be done in this situation?
For now we thought of the following:
1> Shrinking the root partition to get some unallocated space that can be used to create a PV.
problems :
a. How do u do it? Can gparted be used online without the live CD?
b. How much can the root be compressed without the OS failure?
2> Can the root partition be converted into a LV?
3> There is free space on the root partition. Now can we use this free space to create a block device that can be converted into PV that would contain my protected files mirrored across other LV on a different disk. If so how can we do it?
Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks a lot.
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Red Hat

Listing files/space used on root partition

For instance, root partition is full so I don't need to know about /ABC/XYZ when /ABC/XYZ is a separate mount point. (But /ABC isnt). Can I run a du command or similar and just look at contents effecting the space on that mount point (/)? (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: psychocandy
2 Replies

2. Red Hat

Allot free space from one partition to other

I have a RHEL 5.3 machine with the following partitions and free space: Free space on the partitions / : 74GB /boot : 81MB /var : 73GB /home : 37GB /icat : 758MB /opt : 1.5GB Now is it possible to allot a free space of some other partitions to /opt? I want around 100 GB more space... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: omniok
4 Replies

3. Solaris

Cleanup special files create via device match in a whole root zone

I added in the configuration file of a whole root zone the following device match entries: <device match="/dev/rmt/*"/> <device match="/dev/sg/*"/> after the reboot the zone was able to see all the devices of its global zone, and let under /dev/rmt and /dev/sg the special files created with... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: hugo_perez
1 Replies

4. Linux

How to increase root space from another partition?

Hi OS Experts I would like to increase root partition from another partition so that I can save more documents in Home and Desktop. whether it is possible without formating root partition if so please explain here is o/p of df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda9... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: Akshay Hegde
8 Replies

5. Solaris

Determine free space in a Disk device

Version: Solaris 10 (August 2011) on VM I am kind of new to Solaris.From VM workstation i allocated 35 GB to this Solaris VM's Disk The disk was named c1t0d0 Few basic slices for root(8gb), swap(517mb) and /export/home(494mb) were created by the solaris Installer during the... (18 Replies)
Discussion started by: polavan
18 Replies

6. Solaris

No space left on device but free space and inodes are available...

hi guys, me again ;) i recently opened a thread about physical to zone migration. My zone is mounted over a "bigger" LUN (500GB) and step is now to move the old files, from the physical server, to my zone. We are talking about 22mio of files. i used rsync to do that and every time at... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: beta17
8 Replies

7. Windows & DOS: Issues & Discussions

Consolidating Freespace to allow shrinking partition?

i have an "old" laptop with 84gb used space, 203gb free, running 32bit Windows Vista. i've tried all defragmenting programs i could find and though some offer Free Space Defrag, they don't seem to take into account where on the disk to consolidates the space to. what i am trying to achieve is... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: Sterist
4 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Disk space for root partition

Hello, I am trying to monitor disk space for each node on the machine. I am able to get all individual nodes but for the '/' node. For example: df -k: bash-2.05b# df -k Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/xxx 4127108 2415340 1502120 62% / /dev/yyy ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: chiru_h
3 Replies

9. Filesystems, Disks and Memory

Ran out of space on /dev/root partition

hi, I have a SCO unix server which has a 36gb hard drive, but the IT company who supplied it assigned 1gb to /dev/root, 15mb to /dev/boot and 33gb to /dev/u. The /dev/root partition is now full, is there a way I can use the 33gb assigned to /dev/u without loosing any data, preferably... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Martyn
2 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Device Free Space

Hi, I've tried to find answer to this question in the forums but i haven't found it. How can i know the space left in my devices (tape, disk, floppy, etc...)? It is very important to know at least the free space in the TAPE device. Can someone help? Thanx in advance. Jorge (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: jorge.ferreira
1 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question
vxmirror(1M)															      vxmirror(1M)

NAME
vxmirror - mirror volumes on a disk or control default mirroring SYNOPSIS
/etc/vx/bin/vxmirror [-g diskgroup ] [-d yes|no ] [-t tasktag ] medianame [new_medianame...] /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror [-g diskgroup ] [-d yes|no ] [-t tasktag ] -a [new_medianame...] /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror [-g diskgroup ] [-d yes|no] /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror [-g diskgroup] -D DESCRIPTION
The vxmirror command provides a mechanism to mirror all non-mirrored volumes that are located on a specified disk, to mirror all currently non-mirrored volumes in the specified disk group, or to change or display the current defaults for mirroring. All volumes that have only a single plex (mirror copy), are mirrored by adding an additional plex. Volumes containing subdisks that reside on more than one disk are not mirrored by vxmirror. vxmirror is generally called from the vxdiskadm menus. It is not an interactive command, and after it is called, continues until comple- tion of the operation or until a failure is detected. Note: Generating mirror copies of volumes can take a considerable time to complete. In the first listed form of this command, the disk media name is supplied on the command line to vxmirror. That name is assumed to be the only disk from which volumes are mirrored. In the case of mirroring volumes from a specified disk, only simple single-subdisk volumes are mirrored. In the first and second listed forms of the command, new_medianame... identifies a new disk media name (or set of names). The mirroring operation uses these names as targets on which to allocate the mirrors. An error results if the same disk is specified for both the source and target disk and if no other viable targets are supplied. Hardware-Specifc Note Some environments provide guidelines to optimize the VxVM's interaction with intelligent storage systems. If these guidelines are present, VxVM follows the guidelines when creating volumes or allocating space for volumes. By default, vxmirror only creates mirror volumes that conform with these guidelines. The following options change the behavior of vxmirror: -o override Creates a mirror of the specified volume and ignores any storage-specific guidelines. Overriding the guidelines is not recom- mended as it can result in incompatible objects, or objects that cannot be administered by VxVM. -o verify Verifies that the specified mirror can be created without violating any storage-specific guidelines, but does not create the plex. If any guidelines are violated, vxmirror exits with an error message. Note: These options need a specific license. Without the license, vxmirror ignores the specified option. OPTIONS
-a Mirrors all existing volumes for the specified disk group. -d yes | no Changes the default for subsequent volume creation, depending on the option argument. If yes, then all subsequent volumes cre- ated automatically become mirrored volumes. If no, then mirroring is turned off for future volumes created. -D Displays current default status for mirroring. -g diskgroup Limits operation of the command to the given disk group, as specified by disk group ID or disk group name. The medianame oper- ands are evaluated relative to the given disk group. If this option is not specified, the default disk group is determined using the rules given in the vxdg(1M) manual page. -t tasktag Specifies using a tasktag as the tag for any tasks created to perform the mirror operations. EXAMPLES
The following command mirrors all non-mirrored volumes on disk disk01 to the available space on any other available disk. Subsequent calls to vxassist mirror created volumes by default. /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror -d yes disk01 This command displays the current status of default mirroring. It outputs the string yes if mirroring is currently enabled, or no if mir- roring is not enabled. /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror -D This command mirrors any volumes on disk02 to disk03. /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror disk02 disk03 FILES
/etc/default/vxassist The defaults file for vxassist parameters. SEE ALSO
vxassist(1M), vxdiskadm(1M), vxintro(1M), vxtask(1M) VxVM 5.0.31.1 24 Mar 2008 vxmirror(1M)