[ale] mint 13 vm running out of storage space

[Don Kramer]

Glad it worked Ron! Yeah you cut out one step. The way I described it I've
done once virtually which was just repeating something I've done physically
with external USB drives on multiple occasions. One other thing to look at
on your VM is the number of cores you got allocated, for some reason I've
read the optimal number of CPUs to assign a guest equals the number of
physical cores on the host minus 1. So in the case on my i7 that is quad
core (but hyper-threaded so on the host it appears there's eight CPUs), but
it's really four cores physically, I give my VMs three CPUs.  I don't know
the rationale behind doing that, but if someone else does or has a
different take would enjoy the feedback.


On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 10:04 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

> Hi Phil,
>
> Thanks for taking the time to post this.  I'm afraid a good bit of it is
> over my head.  But, I am keeping it on hand in case I can use it later.
>
> Mike will probably understand more of what you're talking about.
>
> That kpartx tool sounds cool.
>
> Also, my host is Windows, which I didn't mention before.  So, some of what
> you listed here wouldn't apply.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
>  Hi Ron, Mike,
>>
>> I make heavy use of VirtualBox and have some techniques that solve these
>> kinds of problems...
>>
>> On 10/13/2013 07:25 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Hi Mike T,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the tips and info.  It seems there is a never ending chain
>>> of things to learn about hdd's and storage.  I haven't had a chance
>>> to play with LVM's.  It's one of many things on my ttd list.  I might
>>> be able to use the procedure you mentioned in the future.
>>>
>>>
>> I use LVM for my virtual machines, but the biggest bang for the buck
>> comes from the *host* LVM.  Specifically, I create logical volumes on my
>> host, one per virtual disk.  The "VBoxManage" tool can create a mapping
>> in a tiny .vmdk file that provides 1:1 sector mapping for that virtual
>> hard drive into the logical volume.  This make a certain tasks absurdly
>> easy:
>>
>> 1) Resizing.  Disconnect the mapping from its VM, delete it, extend the
>> LV with your preferred LVM tool, recreate and reconnect the mapping.
>> Presto!  VM now sees larger drive just as if you had performed a
>> disk-to-larger-disk copy.
>>
>> 2) Host access.  The "kpartx" tool can see the embedded partition table
>> and set up device mappings to its partitions *from the host*.  (With the
>> VM shut down, of course.)  This makes it possible to scan my untrusted
>> VM disks for viruses (w/ clamav) *without running the VM*.  Or do
>> anything else I need with those files.
>>
>>
>>
>>> In case I end up resizing the existing file system, can you or
>>> someone remind me of which file to edit to control how the file
>>> systems get initialized and mounted during boot.  I'll probably need
>>> to deactivate the swap and possibly change the device id if I create
>>> another virtual drive.  I cannot remember the name for that, but it's
>>> the long string of digits that identify a partition.
>>>
>>>
>> Procedure (1) above does need tweeking inside the VM to use the new
>> space, as you will if you do the copy you are considering.  Last time I
>> did this, I ran gparted inside the VM to expand the last partition into
>> the new space.  gparted automatically ran resize2fs for me.  I could
>> just as easily run gparted in the *host* before running the VM to
>> achieve the same results.
>>
>>
>>
>>> "Michael B. Trausch"<mbt at naunetcorp.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>> Because this is a virtual *HDD* and *HDD*s cannot be resized,
>>>> well, that's a reasonable limitation.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Except that you can, if you are using a suitable *host*.
>>
>>
>>
>>> What it boils down to is that you add disk space to a VM the same
>>>> way you do to a real host:  Add a second drive and append it to
>>>> your setup (if you're using LVM), or create a second drive and move
>>>> the data over to it (hopefully putting LVM on that so that you have
>>>> the ability to grow later).
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I love LVM, but I don't use it much *in* my VMs.
>>
>> <flamebait>
>> For *desktop* duty on a linux host, I find VBox superior to all other
>> virtualization tools.  :-)
>> </flamebait>
>>
>> Phil
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
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> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
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-- 
Don Kramer
donkramer at gmail.com - email / 404-213-7738 - cell
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