Resizing the file system after volume expansion

When a volume attached to your virtual machine is resized, it may not automatically provide the additional storage capacity to the operating system. To fully utilize the expanded volume, you must resize the file system, which allows the OS to recognize and make use of the extra space. Follow the steps below for resizing the file system on Linux or Windows, depending on your virtual machine’s operating system.

For Linux Instances

1. Log into the instance: Use SSH to access your Linux VM:

ssh -i <key_path/private_key_file> <username>@<public_IP>

2. Identify disk information: Use df command to list the size of the file system and to find the device names for your disks.

sudo df -Th 

Filesystem      Type     Size   Used  Avail  Use%  Mounted on
/dev/sda1       ext4     9.7G   1.2G   8.5G   12%  /
/dev/sdb        ext4     250G    60M   250G    1%  /mnt/disks/disk-1

3. Resize the file system of the disk:

• For volumes formatted with ext4, apply the resize2fs command to increase the file system (replace DEVICE-NAME with your disk’s name, found in the Filesystem column of the df output):

sudo resize2fs /dev/DEVICE-NAME

The filesystem on /dev/sdb is now 157286400 blocks long.

• For volumes formatted with xfs, apply the xfs_growfs command to increase the file system (replace MOUNT-DIR with your disk’s mount point, found in the Mounted on column of the df output):

sudo xfs_growfs MOUNT-DIR

meta-data=/dev/sda               isize=512    agcount=4, agsize=32768000 blks
        =                       sectsz=512   attr=2, projid32bit=1
        =                       crc=1        finobt=1 spinodes=0
data     =                       bsize=4096   blocks=131072000, imaxpct=25
        =                       sunit=0      swidth=0 blks
naming   =version 2              bsize=4096   ascii-ci=0 ftype=1
log      =internal               bsize=4096   blocks=64000, version=2
        =                       sectsz=512   sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none                   extsz=4096   blocks=0, rtextents=0
data blocks changed from 131072000 to 157286400

• For volumes If you are using btrfs, use the btrfs command (replace MOUNT-DIR with your disk’s mount point, found in the Mounted on column of the df output):

sudo btrfs filesystem resize max MOUNT-DIR

Resize '/mnt' of 'max'

4. Verify resizing: Check the new size with df -h to confirm.

df -h /dev/DEVICE-NAME

For Windows Instances

1. Connect via RDP: Access your Windows VM using RDP

2. Open disk management: Right-click the Start button and select Disk Management

3. Refresh disk management: Click Action > Refresh at the top to recognize the new space.

4. Extend volume: Find the disk that you’ve resized and right-click on it and select Extend Volume. Follow the Extend Volume Wizard instructions to extend the disk.

5. Verify changes: After the volume finishes formatting, check the Status column in Disk Management to confirm that the disk is Healthy.

After these steps, the file system will be fully resized to utilize the expanded volume space.