[rhn-users] manipulating linux partitions

[Paul A. Kennedy]

On Tue, Aug 24, 2004 at 10:16:15AM -0600, Mike Tran wrote:
> 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
> 


You are going to have to do this the hard way (as someone else has already
posted) with potentially a partition editor or getting another disk and
starting again.  The cost of a new hard disk certainly makes that an attractive
choice.

However, to get freedom of resizing partitions in a fairly painless way, you
could look at setting up LVM (Logical Volume Manager).  You will most likely
want to get a new disk and set up LVM on that disk and then transfer things
over.  

As with any solution, make sure you know what is necessary for disaster
recovery (with LVM, remember your metadata backups should be accessible
_outside_ your LVM, whether this is a small non-LVM partition or on backup
media).

Hope this helps,
Paul