Resizing/extending disk space

Hello,

Changing the disk size through the Linode Manager as per this guide will not effect your data. However, if you want to increase your disk size beyond the allotted size of your Linode you can use the resize tool in the Linode manager to migrate your Linode to a new plan.

When you use the resize tool through the Linode Manager to resize your disk the data, configuration profiles, and IP addresses will be all be moved to the new host. For more information on resizing I recommend checking out this awesome guide.

To add some extra context for how a Linode plan resize is carried out, this is the step-by-step process that takes place behind the scenes:

1. We issue a graceful shutdown notice to your Linode that gives your applications time to quit normally.
2. When the Linode has powered down, we clone its disks to a new host that can supply the hardware resources needed for your new plan.
3. When this clone finishes, we boot the Linode.

Please note that if you have previously made software updates or configuration changes and haven't rebooted your Linode since then, then this plan resize can make those changes take effect, even though we are not changing the data on your disk. This is because certain kinds of changes only take effect after the corresponding applications/services have been restarted.

It is not clear to me that adding block space will enable my Linode to use that space as easily as changing plans. What would be ideal is an option not only for high memory (exists in the Linode plans) but also to add high disk space. I don't need extra CPUs (1% average) or bandwidth. I have a whack of virtual servers and just need additional disk space for all the imagery and code.

Do you think Block space will be intended to expand/extend a Linode at some point?

Block storage is a separate system running on separate hardware, but the data will be just as accessible as any other file on your Linode.

When you mount the volume, you'll create a mount point on your Linode. For example, if you set the directory /mnt/files to be the mount point, then everything stored in /mnt/files would be stored on the block storage volume and will still be easily accessible on your Linode.

How to use Block Storage on your Linode

Thanks for the reply. In my case /dev/sda is not going to be expanded or extended. If I am running virtual servers (virtualmin) that uses /home directory then I can't easily extend the size of my Linode (and /home) using block storage. I have 40GB Linode with /home within the /root directory.

If I add 20GB block storage I will see 60GB total but I can't extend the original Linode unless I use LVM. That's why I was suggesting having options for larger linodes in drive size in addition to the existing option high memory.

If I have to use LVM to accomplish then I can get someone to do that but it is a workaround as I see it. I just want a larger Linode and not more CPUs. If I am missing something please let me know. Thanks.

If I am missing something please let me know.

Stop putting everything in /home, that's what you're missing.

That does not address the issue of a larger Linode. Thanks for the suggestion however.

Block storage can't be used to 'extend' the Linode's disk other than by making it accessible via a mount point.

As for new plans with a focus on or increased storage, we don't have anything to announce just yet. Keep an eye on our blog for any new announcements!

Hello,

Would it be possible to extend the root partition on Linode ?
example - /dev/root - is 50 GB, I want to resize the partition to 60 GB.