zfs discuss - Jun 2011 - Resizing ZFS partition, shrinking NTFS?

Problem:

I currently run a duel boot machine with a 45Gb partition for Win7 Ultimate and
a 25Gb partition for OpenSolaris 10 (134).  I need to shrink NTFS to 20Gb and
increase the ZFS partion to 45Gb.  Is this possible please?  I have looked at
using the partition tool in OpenSolaris but both partition are locked, even
under admin.  Win7 won''t allow me to shrink the dynamic volume, as the
Finsh button is always greyed out, so no luck in that direction.

Thanks in advance.
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Hi Clive,

What you are asking is not recommended nor supported and could render
your ZFS root pool unbootable. (I''m not saying that some expert
couldn''t do it, but its risky, like data corruption risky.)

ZFS expects the partition boundaries to remain the same unless you
replace the original disk with another disk, attach another disk and
detach the original disk, or expand a pool''s an underlying LUN.

If you have a larger disk, this is what I would recommend. Attach the
larger disk and the detach the smaller disk. The full steps are
documented on the solarisinternals.com wiki, ZFS troubleshooting
section, replacing the root pool disk steps.


Thanks,

Cindy


On 06/16/11 13:21, Clive Meredith wrote:
> Problem:
> 
> I currently run a duel boot machine with a 45Gb partition for Win7 Ultimate
and a 25Gb partition for OpenSolaris 10 (134).  I need to shrink NTFS to 20Gb
and increase the ZFS partion to 45Gb.  Is this possible please?  I have looked
at using the partition tool in OpenSolaris but both partition are locked, even
under admin.  Win7 won''t allow me to shrink the dynamic volume, as the
Finsh button is always greyed out, so no luck in that direction.
> 
> Thanks in advance.

In message <444915109.61308252125289.JavaMail.Twebapp at sf-app1>, Clive
Meredith
writes:
>I currently run a duel boot machine with a 45Gb partition for Win7 Ultimate
an
>d a 25Gb partition for OpenSolaris 10 (134).  I need to shrink NTFS to 20Gb
an
>d increase the ZFS partion to 45Gb.  Is this possible please?  I have looked
a
>t using the partition tool in OpenSolaris but both partition are locked,
even
>under admin.  Win7 won''t allow me to shrink the dynamic volume, as
the Finsh b
>utton is always greyed out, so no luck in that direction.
Shrink the NTFS filesystem first.
I''ve used the Knoppix LiveCD against a defragmented NTFS.

Then use beadm(1M) to duplicate your OpenSolaris BE to
a USB drive and also send snapshots of any other rpool ZFS
there.

Then I would boot the USB drive, run format, fdisk and recreate
the Solaris fdisk partition on your system, recreate the rpool
on slice 0 of that fdisk partition, use beadm(1M) to copy
your BE back to your new rpool, and then restore any other ZFS
from those snapshots.

John
groenveld at acm.org

On 17.06.2011 01:44, John D Groenveld wrote:
> In message<444915109.61308252125289.JavaMail.Twebapp at sf-app1>,
Clive Meredith
> writes:
>> I currently run a duel boot machine with a 45Gb partition for Win7
Ultimate an
>> d a 25Gb partition for OpenSolaris 10 (134).  I need to shrink NTFS to
20Gb an
>> d increase the ZFS partion to 45Gb.  Is this possible please?  I have
looked a
>> t using the partition tool in OpenSolaris but both partition are
locked, even
>> under admin.  Win7 won''t allow me to shrink the dynamic
volume, as the Finsh b
>> utton is always greyed out, so no luck in that direction.
>
> Shrink the NTFS filesystem first.
> I''ve used the Knoppix LiveCD against a defragmented NTFS.
>
> Then use beadm(1M) to duplicate your OpenSolaris BE to
> a USB drive and also send snapshots of any other rpool ZFS
> there.
I''d suggest a somewhat different approach:
1) boot a live cd and use something like parted to shrink the NTFS partition
2) create a new partition without FS in the space now freed from NTFS
3) boot OpenSolaris, add the partition from 2) as vdev to your zpool.

HTH
Michael
-- 
Michael Schuster
http://recursiveramblings.wordpress.com/

2011-06-17 9:37, Michael Schuster ?????:
>
> I''d suggest a somewhat different approach:
> 1) boot a live cd and use something like parted to shrink the NTFS 
> partition
> 2) create a new partition without FS in the space now freed from NTFS
> 3) boot OpenSolaris, add the partition from 2) as vdev to your zpool.
>
> HTH
> Michael
I gather that he is trying to expand his root pool, and you can
not add a vdev to one. Though, true, it might be possible to
create a second, data pool, in the partition. I am not sure if
zfs can make two pools in different partitions of the same
device though - underneath it still uses Solaris slices, and
I think those can be used on one partition. That was my
assumption for a long time, though never really tested.

I only did similar expansions within one slice table which
covered the whole disk, and that was a mirror set so I
could juggle data around (migrating to ZFS Root from
UFS+LUroot+swap layouts, where sometimes original
slices did not all go after each other). That went well,
and autoexpansion worked as soon as I increased
the slice sizes via format''s partition editor. And maybe
rebooted too...

I think the method of zfs send/recv via a secondary device
(including network storage) and another boot device
(including a LiveCD|LiveUSB), and remaking the partition,
is the least error-prone for this poster''s situation.

And resizing the system NTFS partition is really unlikely
to be allowed from within running Windows. It should be
done from some external booting software, and probably
after such defragmentation which would stuff all data into
start or end of that NTFS partition as appropriate (see for
example the free JkDefrag/MyDefrag project).


-- 


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On Fri, 17 Jun 2011, Jim Klimov wrote:
> I gather that he is trying to expand his root pool, and you can
> not add a vdev to one. Though, true, it might be possible to
> create a second, data pool, in the partition. I am not sure if
> zfs can make two pools in different partitions of the same
> device though - underneath it still uses Solaris slices, and
> I think those can be used on one partition. That was my
> assumption for a long time, though never really tested.
This would be a bad assumption.  Zfs should not care and you are able 
to do apparently silly things with it.  Sometimes allowing potentially 
silly things is quite useful.

Bob
-- 
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/

On 17 Jun 11, at 21:14 , Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Jun 2011, Jim Klimov wrote:
>> I gather that he is trying to expand his root pool, and you can
>> not add a vdev to one. Though, true, it might be possible to
>> create a second, data pool, in the partition. I am not sure if
>> zfs can make two pools in different partitions of the same
>> device though - underneath it still uses Solaris slices, and
>> I think those can be used on one partition. That was my
>> assumption for a long time, though never really tested.
> 
> This would be a bad assumption.  Zfs should not care and you are able to do
apparently silly things with it.  Sometimes allowing potentially silly things is
quite useful.
> 
This is true.  If one has mirrored disks, you could do something like I explain
here WRT partitioning and resizing pools.

http://www.kamiogi.net/Kamiogi/Frame_Dragging/Entries/2009/5/19_Everything_in_Its_Place_-_Moving_and_Reorganizing_ZFS_Storage.html

I did some shuffling using Solaris partitions here on a home server, but it was
using mirrors of the same geometry disks.

You might be able to o a similar shuffle using an external USB drive which was
appropriately sized and turn on autoexpand.

Mike

---
Michael Sullivan                   
mps at axsh.us
http://www.axsh.us/
Phone: +1-662-259-8888
Mobile: +1-662-202-7716