How To Resize LVM Software RAID1 Partitions (Shrink & Grow)

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 12/12/2008

This article describes how you can shrink and grow existing software RAID1 partitions with LVM on top (if you don't use LVM, please read this guide instead: How To Resize RAID Partitions (Shrink & Grow) (Software RAID)). I have tested this with logical volumes that use ext3 as the file system. I will describe this procedure for an intact RAID array and also a degraded RAID array.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

A few days ago I found out that one of my servers had a degraded RAID1 array (/dev/md1, made up of /dev/sda5 and /dev/sdb5; /dev/sda5 had failed, /dev/sdb5 was still active):

server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md1 : active raid1 sdb5[1]
      4988032 blocks [2/1] [_U]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      248896 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>
server1:~#

I tried to fix it (using this tutorial), but unfortunately at the end of the sync process (with 99.9% complete), the sync stopped and started over again. As I found out, this happened because there were some defect sectors at the end of the (working) partition /dev/sdb5 - this was in /var/log/kern.log:

Nov 22 18:51:06 server1 kernel: sdb: Current: sense key: Aborted Command
Nov 22 18:51:06 server1 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1465142856

So this was the worst case that could happen - /dev/sda dead and /dev/sdb about to die. To fix this, I imagined I could shrink /dev/md1 so that it leaves out the broken sectors at the end of /dev/sdb5, then add the new /dev/sda5 (from the replaced hard drive) to /dev/md1, let the sync finish, remove /dev/sdb5 from the array and replace /dev/sdb with a new hard drive, add the new /dev/sdb5 to /dev/md1, and grow /dev/md1 again.

This is one of the use cases for the following procedures (I will describe the process for an intact array and a degraded array).

I have used two small hard drives (5GB) for this tutorial - that way I didn't have to wait that long for the resyncing to finish. Of course, on real systems you will have much larger hard drives.

Please note that /dev/md1 contains the volume group /dev/server1 with the logical volumes /dev/server1/root (which is the system partition, mount point /) and /dev/server1/swap_1 (swap).

Because I have to resize my system partition (/dev/server1/root), I have to use a rescue system (e.g. Knoppix Live-CD) to resize the array. If the array you want to resize does not contain your system partition, you probably don't need to boot into a rescue system; but in either case, make sure that the logical volumes are unmounted!

2 Intact Array

I will describe how to resize the array /dev/md1, made up of /dev/sda5 and /dev/sdb5. This is the current situation:

cat /proc/mdstat

server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md1 : active raid1 sda5[0] sdb5[1]
      4988032 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      248896 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>
server1:~#

df -h

server1:~# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/server1-root
                      4.5G  741M  3.5G  18% /
tmpfs                 126M     0  126M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M   68K   10M   1% /dev
tmpfs                 126M     0  126M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/md0              236M   18M  206M   8% /boot
server1:~#

pvdisplay

server1:~# pvdisplay
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/md1
  VG Name               server1
  PV Size               4.75 GB / not usable 0
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size (KByte)       4096
  Total PE              1217
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          1217
  PV UUID               Ntrsmz-m0o1-WAPD-xhsb-YpH7-0okm-qfdBQG

server1:~#

vgdisplay

server1:~# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               server1
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  9
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               2
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               4.75 GB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              1217
  Alloc PE / Size       1217 / 4.75 GB
  Free  PE / Size       0 / 0
  VG UUID               X3ZYTy-39yq-20k7-GCGk-vKVU-Xe0i-REdEu0

server1:~#

lvdisplay

server1:~# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/server1/root
  VG Name                server1
  LV UUID                3ZgGnd-Sq1s-Rchu-92b9-DpAX-mk24-0aOMm2
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                4.50 GB
  Current LE             1151
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           253:0

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/server1/swap_1
  VG Name                server1
  LV UUID                KM6Yq8-jQaQ-rkP8-6f4t-zrXA-Jk13-yFrWi2
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 2
  LV Size                264.00 MB
  Current LE             66
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           253:1

server1:~#

2.1 Shrinking An Intact Array

Boot into your rescue system and activate all needed modules:

modprobe md
modprobe linear
modprobe multipath
modprobe raid0
modprobe raid1
modprobe raid5
modprobe raid6
modprobe raid10

Then activate your RAID arrays...

cp /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf_orig
mdadm --examine --scan >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

mdadm -A --scan

... and start LVM:

/etc/init.d/lvm start

Run

e2fsck -f /dev/server1/root

to check the file system.

/dev/md1 has a size of 5GB; I want to shrink it to 4GB. First we have to shrink the file system on the logical volume /dev/server1/root with resize2fs; the file system is inside the logical volume /dev/server1/root, so the filesystem should be <= the logical volume (therefore I make the file system 2GB). The logical volumes (LV - we have two of them, /dev/server1/root and /dev/server1/swap_1) again are inside the physical volume (PV) /dev/md1 (therefore LV /dev/server1/root + LV /dev/server1/swap_1 <= PV; I make LV /dev/server1/root 2.5GB and delete /dev/server1/swap_1, see next paragraph) which is on the RAID array /dev/md1 that we want to shrink (so PV <= /dev/md1; I shrink the PV to 3GB).

As /dev/server1/swap_1 is at the end of our hard drive, we can delete it, shrink the PV and then create /dev/server1/swap_1 again to make sure that /dev/server1/root fits into our PV. If the swap LV is not at the end of your hard drive in your case, there's no need to delete it - you must make sure that you shrink the last LV on the drive enough so that it fits into the PV.

So I shrink /dev/server1/root's filesystem to 2GB (make sure you use a big enough value so that all your files and directories fit into it!):

resize2fs /dev/server1/root 2G

... and the /dev/server1/root LV to 2.5GB:

lvreduce -L2.5G /dev/server1/root

Then I delete the /dev/server1/swap_1 LV (not necessary if swap is not at the end of your hard drive - in this case make sure you shrink the last LV on the drive so that it fits into the PV!)...

lvremove /dev/server1/swap_1

... and resize the PV to 3GB:

pvresize --setphysicalvolumesize 3G /dev/md1

Now we shrink /dev/md1 to 4GB. The --size value must be in KiBytes (4 x 1024 x 1024 = 4194304); make sure it can be divided by 64:

mdadm --grow /dev/md1 --size=4194304

Now I grow the PV to the largest possible value (if you don't specify a size, pvresize will use the largest possible value):

pvresize /dev/md1

Now let's check the output of

vgdisplay

root@Knoppix:~# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               server1
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  26
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                1
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               4.00 GB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              1023
  Alloc PE / Size       640 / 2.50 GB
  Free  PE / Size       383 / 1.50 GB
  VG UUID               X3ZYTy-39yq-20k7-GCGk-vKVU-Xe0i-REdEu0

root@Knoppix:~#

As you see, we have 383 free PE, so we can recreate the /dev/server1/swap_1 LV (which had 66 PE before we deleted it):

lvcreate --name swap_1 -l 66 server1

mkswap /dev/server1/swap_1

Let's check

vgdisplay

again:

root@Knoppix:~# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               server1
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  27
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               4.00 GB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              1023
  Alloc PE / Size       706 / 2.76 GB
  Free  PE / Size       317 / 1.24 GB
  VG UUID               X3ZYTy-39yq-20k7-GCGk-vKVU-Xe0i-REdEu0

root@Knoppix:~#

We still have 317 free PE, so we can extend our /dev/server1/root LV:

lvextend -l +317 /dev/server1/root

Now we resize /dev/server1/root's filesystem to the largest possible value (if you don't specify a size, resize2fs will use the largest possible value)...

resize2fs /dev/server1/root

... and run a file system check again:

e2fsck -f /dev/server1/root

That's it - you can now boot into the normal system again.

After the reboot you should see that /dev/md1 is now smaller:

cat /proc/mdstat

server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md1 : active raid1 sda5[0] sdb5[1]
      4194304 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      248896 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>
server1:~#

df -h

server1:~# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/server1-root
                      3.7G  742M  3.0G  20% /
tmpfs                 126M     0  126M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M   68K   10M   1% /dev
tmpfs                 126M     0  126M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/md0              236M   18M  206M   8% /boot
server1:~#

pvdisplay

server1:~# pvdisplay
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/md1
  VG Name               server1
  PV Size               4.00 GB / not usable 0
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size (KByte)       4096
  Total PE              1023
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          1023
  PV UUID               Ntrsmz-m0o1-WAPD-xhsb-YpH7-0okm-qfdBQG

server1:~#

vgdisplay

server1:~# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               server1
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  28
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               2
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               4.00 GB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              1023
  Alloc PE / Size       1023 / 4.00 GB
  Free  PE / Size       0 / 0
  VG UUID               X3ZYTy-39yq-20k7-GCGk-vKVU-Xe0i-REdEu0

server1:~#

lvdisplay

server1:~# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/server1/root
  VG Name                server1
  LV UUID                3ZgGnd-Sq1s-Rchu-92b9-DpAX-mk24-0aOMm2
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                3.74 GB
  Current LE             957
  Segments               2
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           253:0

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/server1/swap_1
  VG Name                server1
  LV UUID                sAzi1B-pKdf-dM1E-Swx0-mgse-RFMP-ns50GQ
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 2
  LV Size                264.00 MB
  Current LE             66
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           253:1

server1:~#