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Accepted
Fabby
Asked: 2019-07-24 22:52:52 +0800 CST

How do I resize partitions when I don't have physical access to a remote server?

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I have a:

  • cloud instance
  • remote server
  • Virtual Machine
  • ...

of Ubuntu to which I don't have physical access and I need to resize mounted partitions like / that I cannot dismount!

All the tutorials / answers I can find on-line are telling me to boot a USB or a DVD or ... but I can't because I don't have physical access to Ubuntu!

What should I do??? Help!

partitioning cloud virtualization headless

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Warning: The following does not work if you have ssh access to your server only! You need some kind of an Out of Band console session into your server like a cpanel console, vCenter, iLO, IDRAC, ...

    Warning in plain English: You need to be able to see grub when you boot into Ubuntu.

    The steps:

    • Take a full snapshot / system backup / ... of your instance that can be restored through a boot process like PXE, an off-line bootable USB disk, ...
    • No really: 95% of the time everything goes well, but have a look first on how to back up first before you have to trek up a mountain to service the Ubuntu server that is controlling that telescope!
    • Download the gparted live iso

    • copy the downloaded file in /opt/LiveISOs

          sudo mkdir /opt/LiveISOs
    sudo cp ~/Downloads/gparted-live-1.0.0-3-amd64.iso /opt/LiveISOs

    • edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom to include the following at the end:

          menuentry "GParted Live ISO" {
      set ISOFile="/opt/Live-ISOs/gparted-live-1.0.0-3-amd64.iso"
      loopback loop ($root)$ISOFile
      linuxefi (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live components config findiso=$ISOFile ip=frommedia toram=filesystem.squashfs union=overlay username=user
      initrdefi (loop)/live/initrd.img
    }
    • set grub's timeout parameter to anything but 0

    • update grub's config:

          sudo update-grub2

    • Reboot to grub

    • Take menu option GParted Live ISO

      Voilà: a virtual USB key has been inserted in your VM / headless server / ... virtually and you can now shrink / expand partitions off-line using gparted (or using lvm utilities from the command line!)

    Note: If using VMWare, you can also attach the ISO to the VM and boot the ISO through vCenter.

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