CentOS - May 2010 - is it possible to resive /var online?

Hi all,

Is it possible, safely, to resize /var while a server is running? I urgently
need to resize a full 2GB /var on a running server which is located at a
remote location where no one can get to it for 2 days?

The system runs on lvm.

I already moved /var/logs to it's own LVM partition but it didn't help
at
all so I think it's better to rather just resize it. Google searches suggest
taking the server offline, or boot into single mode. But this won't be
possible for another 2 or so days and I urgently need to install more
software on the server.

tia :)

-- 
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

Website: http://www.SoftDux.com
Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com
Office: 087 805 9573
Cell: 082 554 7532
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Rudi Ahlers wrote:
> Hi all,
>  
> Is it possible, safely, to resize /var while a server is running? I 
> urgently need to resize a full 2GB /var on a running server which is 
> located at a remote location where no one can get to it for 2 days?
>  
> The system runs on lvm.
Growing on line EXT3 file systems on LVM has always worked ok for me. 
shrinking needs to be done off line but growing on line File systems has 
not given me any trouble to date.

I expect that the likelihood of problems with this is proportional to 
the distance from your current location to the server though ;-)

regards
Brendan

On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Rudi Ahlers <rudiahlers at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Is it possible, safely, to resize /var while a server is running? I
urgently
> need to resize a full 2GB /var on a running server which is located at a
> remote location where no one can get to it for 2 days?
>
> The system runs on lvm.
If it's on LVM it's pretty simple:

lvs  to show the current lvs.


lvresize -L +500M /dev/VolGroup00/var_lv
resize2fs /dev/VolGroup00/var_lv

If you're running earlier versions of lvm you may need to use
ex2online instead of resize2fs.

On 05/03/2010 05:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:
> Is it possible, safely, to resize /var while a server is running? I
> urgently need to resize a full 2GB /var on a running server which is
> located at a remote location where no one can get to it for 2 days?
I've done it before on a quiet system and it worked fine.  Still think
its a bit risky if you cant get to it for 2 days.
> I already moved /var/logs to it's own LVM partition but it didn't
help
> at all so I think it's better to rather just resize it. Google searches
> suggest taking the server offline, or boot into single mode. But this
> won't be possible for another 2 or so days and I urgently need to
> install more software on the server.
If you "urgently need to install new software", then a small
possibility
of breaking the system for 2 days is probably a show stopper.  I'd
continue with your approach (as a temporary solution) of migrating bits
of /var to a different LVM.  If moving /var/logs didn't help, you need
to track down the big directories.  Try

du -sh /var/*

then drill down though your big candidates

/var/cache/yum, /var/spool, and /var/tmp are always candidates for clean up.

Hope this helps.

Kal