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PowerFlex Manager: How to expand the /var filesystem by 100 GB on an existing 3.6.1 appliance prior to upgrade to 3.7.x

Summary: This procedure explains how to expand the var filesystem on an existing 3.6.x PowerFlex Manager appliance by 100 GB. This allows your existing PowerFlex Manager VM to have the same size disk space as a new 3.7.x appliance would have. Once this is completed, you can perform a standard PowerFlex Manager software upgrade from 3.6.x to 3.7.x. ...

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Instructions

The PowerFlex Manager virtual machine (VM) is running Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to manage its volumes. There is a separate /var/log and /var volume on the PowerFlex Manager appliance. We are going to be expanding /var by 100 GB to match the new default configuration in version 3.7.0 and higher using the following steps.

 

Check the size of the current virtual disk on the PowerFlex Manager VM:

  • Log in to PowerFlex Manager over ssh

  • Check the size of the virtual disk by running the following command:

    lsblk
    PFxM lsblk

 

Increase the VM disk size on the PowerFlex Manager VM:

  • Log in to vCenter and find the PowerFlex Manager VM.

  • Right-click and edit settings. Change the disk size from 200 GB to 300 GB.
    PFxM VM Disk Settings

 

Navigate back to the SSH session to the PowerFlex Manager VM and perform the remaining steps to expand the filesystem:

  • Perform a scan to detect the changes made to the VM disk size by running this command:

    echo 1>/sys/class/block/sda/device/rescan
  • Confirm that the changes were detected by running this command:

    lsblk
    PFxM lsblk new space
  • Grow the partition that belongs to the expanded volume by running this command:

    growpart /dev/sda 2
    growpart output
  • Check the current physical volume size by running this command:

    pvdisplay
    pvdisplay_before
  • Resize the physical volume by running this command:

    pvresize /dev/sda2
    pvresize
  • Verify that the physical volume size has increased by running this command:

    pvdisplay
    pvdisplay after
  • Confirm that there is now enough Free PE to extend the logical volume by running the following command. The default Free PE before making any changes is 37.26 GiB. You should see that number increased by 100 GiB.

    vgdisplay
    vgdisplay
  • Run the following command to display all the logical volumes and find the one you are expanding. In this case we are looking for /dev/asmVG/LVvar.

    lvdisplay
    lvdisplay before

     

    Note: The red boxes in the above screenshot show the LV Path, LV Size, and the Current Logical Extents. This shows 80 GB and 20480 Logical Extents.
  • Resize the partition /dev/asmVG/LVvar from 80 GB to 180 GB by running the following command:

    lvm lvresize -l 46080 /dev/asmVG/LVvar
    lvm lvresize

     

    Note: One important thing to consider while increasing the Logical Extents is that the amount you are increasing it by should be lesser than the Free PE/Size from the vgdisplay output above. In this case we are adding 25600 LE to the logical volume.
  • The system does not yet see the filesystem changes. You can verify this by running this command:

    df -h
    df -h before resize2fs
  • Run the following command to commit these changes to the filesystem.

    resize2fs /dev/asmVG/LVvar
    resize2fs output
  • Verify you can see that the filesystem size is now showing correctly by running this command:

    df -h
    df -h after resize2fs
  • Confirm that the Free Physical Extents and Size has been reduced by running this command:

    vgdisplay
    vgdisplay output post expansion
  • Confirm that the Current Logical Extents size has increased by running this command:

    lvdisplay
    lvdisplay output post expansion

 

You have successfully expanded the PowerFlex Manager /var filesystem by 100 GB.

 

Affected Products

PowerFlex Appliance