Resizing LVM Volumes in Linux under vmware or native

This is a great set of instructions by David Maphis on how to resize an LVM volume in Linux. I just used these instructions to expand my linux virtual machine hard drive under vmware fusion. OS was Fedora core 6 using lvm. Vmware I used was VMware fusion for the mac but this applies to any linux system using lvm.

Under my vm settings in VMware fusion I expanded the disk to be larger and then followed these instructions for the linux side of things. Obviously the vm has to be shutdown before you mess with the hd size in vmware but all of the linux steps I did on the live system within Xwindows. LV's are great!

Here are David's instructions. You can skip his intro if you are not using vmware server. I injected some notes which you will find in bold.

URL to original pdf: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommunities.vmware.co

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By David Maphis 4/29/2008

In this example I will changed the size of my root partition without
affecting any data. Since this is a VM, I can extend my vmdk with the
“vmkfstools” command. To do this I will have to shutdown the VM to release
the lock on the file then resize it. Power up when complete.

Once this is done, make a partition that uses the available space you wish to
add to the LVM volume using “parted”. It has an interactive shell, so just
enter “parted” in a shell:

parted
(parted) print
Model: VMware Virtual disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 10.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 206MB 206MB primary ext3 boot
2 206MB 8587MB 8382MB primary lvm


So I have from 8588MB to 10.7GB available for a new partition. For this
example I’m only using up to 9588MB. Your numbers will obviously vary.

So now let’s make a partition from the new space:

(parted) mkpart primary 8588 9588

(parted) print
Model: VMware Virtual disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 10.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 206MB 206MB primary ext3 boot
2 206MB 8587MB 8382MB primary lvm
3 8587MB 9588MB 1001MB primary

You can now see that we have allocated a total of 1001MB of space to
partition 3 or /dev/sda3.

Next we need to create a Physical Volume (PV) with “pvcreate”. LVM also has
an interactive shell, so type “lvm” in a shell prompt:

lvm
lvm> pvcreate /dev/sda3
Physical volume "/dev/sda3" successfully created

lvm> pvs
PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/sda2 VolGroup00 lvm2 a- 7.78G 32.00M
/dev/sda3 lvm2 -- 954.44M 954.44M

BFISK NOTE: I did not see sda3 when I ran the pvs command but I was able to proceed with the directions.

Now there is a partition that is about 1GB of space available on PV
/dev/sda3.

Now we need to extend the Volume Group (VG) to include the new PV with the
“vgextend” command:

lvm> vgextend VolGroup00 /dev/sda3
Volume group "VolGroup00" successfully extended
lvm> pvs
PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/sda2 VolGroup00 lvm2 a- 7.78G 32.00M
/dev/sda3 VolGroup00 lvm2 a- 928.00M 928.00M

BFISK NOTE: I dont think I saw sda3 here either but continued with directions

By virtue of the fact that we used the same name as the existing VG, we have
now included this PV in the VG.

Extend the Logical Volume (LV) to include the new space with “lvextend”. To
determine that size of the extents we want to add, we first need to view the
VG:

lvm> vgdisplay VolGroup00
--- Volume group ---
VG Name VolGroup00
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 2
Metadata Sequence No 4
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 2
Open LV 2
Max PV 0
Cur PV 2
Act PV 2
VG Size 8.69 GB
PE Size 32.00 MB
Total PE 278
Alloc PE / Size 248 / 7.75 GB
Free PE / Size 30 / 960.00 MB
VG UUID Ll4Bg4-jIFV-lfut-z4Ae-JTfH-0Hzp-Zf9RjM

Looking at this we can see that the total “Free PE” is 30. We will use this
in the following command:

lvm> lvextend -l+30 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
Extending logical volume LogVol00 to 8.19 GB
Logical volume LogVol00 successfully resized

BFISK NOTE: I am not sure what the +30 is. It's not MB and it's not GB. Maybe %? I dunno, I just issued the command until it told me there was no space left. At that point I used -l+10 untill I ran out and then +1, etc until I had no empty space left.

lvm> lvs
LV VG Attr LSize Origin Snap% Move Log Copy%
LogVol00 VolGroup00 -wi-ao 8.19G
LogVol01 VolGroup00 -wi-ao 512.00M

So there you are, you have now extended your LV. Now we have to clue the OS
in what is happening.
We need to expand the file system to make the new space visible to the OS
with resize2fs (Fedora, CentOS) or ext2online (RedHat)

[root@labserver02 dev]# df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
7.1G 1.3G 5.4G 20% /

[root@labserver02 dev]# resize2fs
resize2fs 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
Usage: resize2fs [-d debug_flags] [-f] [-F] [-p] device [new_size]

[root@labserver02 dev]# resize2fs /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
resize2fs 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
Filesystem at /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is mounted on /; on-line resizing
required
old desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 1
Performing an on-line resize of /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 to 2146304 (4k)
blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is now 2146304 blocks long.

[root@labserver02 dev]# df -h /
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
8.0G 1.3G 6.3G 17% /

Sharepoint: Making Sharepoint (MOSS 2007) easier to use in non-windows enviroments

In my opinion, Microsoft Sharepoint Server (MOSS 2007) is an amazing tool for enterprise document management, communications and collaboration. Sharepoint is not software, it is a platform for business. The tool is almost a "fix all" for corporate users if they are using a windows machine as a client. If you are not using windows but are using mac os x or linux, you will find that sharepoint is lacking some very basic features. This is due to all web browsers other then Internet explorer are labeled as class 2 browsers. Although I understand that Microsoft is going to fine tune MOSS for active x and Internet explorer, some of the features they left out of level 2 browsers are inexcusable. Out of the box, in order to use some of the most basic features of sharepoint, you will need to use Internet explorer. I have found a few workarounds that make sharepoint a product which can be used by cross platform clients. Here are some of those workarounds:

Problem: Some key feature of sharepoint are blogs, discussion groups and wikis. All of these features allow the user to create and edit formatted text using the built in "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) editor... that is if you are using Internet explorer. If you are using any other web browser software, all you will see is raq html. This happens when replying to a discussion group post, editing a wiki page, creating a blog, posting a comment, etc. This makes it hard to believe that Microsoft thinks people will use sharepoint as an Internet web server.

Solution: RadEditor by Telerik. http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/sharepoint.aspx Telerik has a group of tools which come for a fee but you can download and use radeditor lite for free. It is a server add-on which will give you a wysiwyg editor for all browsers.

Problem: Accessing document libraries with non-IE browsers and non-win os. If you are not running windows you are forced to use a web browser to checkout, download, edit, upload and check in your documents and you can only upload one file at a time. If you are using Windows and Internet Explorer you can open a document library in an explorer window just like you would a network share. On any other OS you do not have this option from the actions menu in Sharepoint through the web interface.

Solution: Use a Webdav file client which is similar to a ftp client. In fact, some software provides both webdav and ftp connections. In mac os x I am using cyberduck. In linux I am still evaluating different ways to mount a webdav site (sharepoint document library). I am working on this using davfs but there seems to be a common problem that davfs sometimes does not support folders or files with spaces. I.E. "Shared Documents". I am still trying to figure out the exact details but I have recreated this problem in different linux distributions.

In order for you to use most webdav programs make sure your sharepoint site has basic authentication enabled as most programs wont use NTLM auth. This results in a login failed error when trying to authenticate. You can enable basic authentication under IIS admin, your sharepoint site and authentication. One other note that is helpful is to make sure your document library settings are set to have "Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited" set to "no". This way in your webdav client, you can easily drag and drop files into the document library. If you overwrite a file it will create a new version automatically as long as you have versioning enabled.

Problem: When using Microsoft Windows and Office 2007, you can work with sharepoint items directly from the Office programs. Some examples are editing sharepoint calendars within outlook or saving word documents directly to a sharepoint site without the use of 3rd party tools or a web browser. If you are on a Mac, Office programs have no interaction with sharepoint. This is very depressing especially that Entourage, Microsofts mac mail client comparable to Outlook, does not tie in at all to sharepoint. For linux users and open office there is no way working directly with sharepoint other then through the web interface or using 3rd party apps.

Solution: For mac os x, Microsoft Mac Business unit is working on a program call Document Collaboration Companion (DCC). Microsoft says DCC will provide:

• Integrated (offline/local) access to Office Live Workspaces and SharePoint Websites
• Document upload
• Document check-out/in
• SharePoint Workspace and Doc Library access & browsing
• An independent application with File Menu integration

Right now DCC is in private beta and I cannot figure out how to get on the list. Even MacBU cant give us a status update. The last update they gave was that the beta would be available in Feb of 2009 which has come and past. The website for DCC is http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/dcc.mspx


In conclusion, I hope this helps with some the larger incompatibilities of a base install of Sharepoint when working with non-windows client machines. There are still other setbacks that I have not mentioned here but will post updates on in the future. Sharepoint is an AMAZING tool for enterprise content management and collaboration. It's just too bad it has taken me days and a lot of research to put these solutions together to make it a viable option for my business which is 50% pc, 25% mac and 25% linux.

Comments are appreciated!

Links to things mentioned in this blog:

• Cyberduck (note, only version 3.1.2 seems to work. 3.2 does not seem to work: http://update.cyberduck.ch/Cyberduck-3.1.2.dmg
• Davfs: http://dav.sourceforge.net/
• DCC: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/dcc.mspx
• RadEditor Lite: http://www.telerik.com/community/free-products.aspx