Resize ext3 partition of linux VM

Example for a non-root partition /dev/sdb1 mounted on /srv/backup

Resize the harddrive in your virtualisation application
Umount the partitions that requires to be resized
- umount /srv/backup
Make a Filesystem check in your partition on that device
- fsck -n /dev/sdb1
Now the partition is clean but it is still using Ext3. Ext3 can not be resize but ext2 can. So we need to convert the partition ext3 to ext2. The conversion is basically done disabling journal on ext3
- tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdb1
Now we need to make another filesystem check on ext2 format
- e2fsck -f /dev/sdb1
Delete partition /dev/xvdb1 and create it again with the new size
- cfdisk /dev/sdb
Do a filesystem check to make sure that everything is running smoothly
- fsck -n /dev/sdb1
Run the resize command so ext2 knows about the enlarged size of the partition
- resize2fs /dev/sdb1
Turn on journal again (Making it ext3)
- tune2fs -j /dev/sdb1
Remount the parttion
- mount /srv/backup
Check the size
- df -h

Reference:

Updated at 02/08/2010 11:43

https://www.ullright.org/ullWiki/show/resize-ext3-partition-of-linux-vm