virt-resize

Resize VM disk partitions

TLDR

Resize and expand partition to fill space

$ virt-resize --expand [/dev/sda2] [olddisk.qcow2] [newdisk.qcow2]

Expand partition and LVM logical volume

$ virt-resize --expand [/dev/sda2] --LV-expand [/dev/vg/lv_root] [old.qcow2] [new.qcow2]

Shrink a partition

$ virt-resize --shrink [/dev/sda1] [olddisk.qcow2] [newdisk.qcow2]

Resize with verbose output

$ virt-resize -v --expand [/dev/sda2] [old.qcow2] [new.qcow2]

Resize specific partition to exact size

$ virt-resize --resize [/dev/sda1=20G] [old.qcow2] [new.qcow2]

SYNOPSIS

virt-resize [options] indisk outdisk

virt-resize copies a virtual machine disk image, resizing partitions and filesystems in the process. Unlike qemu-img resize which only changes the container size, virt-resize modifies partition tables and can resize filesystems.The tool cannot resize in place; it requires a separate output disk. First create the new disk with qemu-img create at the desired size, then run virt-resize to copy and resize content.Supported filesystems for expansion include ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs, and NTFS. LVM physical volumes can be expanded, and specific logical volumes can be grown with --LV-expand.

PARAMETERS

--expand partition

Expand partition to fill available space.

--shrink partition

Shrink partition to make space.

--resize part=size

Resize partition to exact size.

--LV-expand logvol

Expand LVM logical volume inside PV.

--no-expand-content

Don't expand filesystem, only partition.

--ntfsresize-force

Force NTFS resize (for Windows guests).

-v, --verbose

Verbose output.

-d, --debug

Debug output.

--machine-readable

Output for scripts.

INSTALL

sudo apt install guestfs-tools

sudo dnf install guestfs-tools

sudo pacman -S guestfs-tools

sudo zypper install guestfs-tools

nix profile install nixpkgs#guestfs-tools

CAVEATS

Cannot resize in place; needs separate output disk. VM must be shut down. Shrinking can cause data loss if partition is too full. Backup before resizing. Part of libguestfs.

HISTORY

virt-resize is part of libguestfs, a library and tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images. Libguestfs was created by Red Hat to provide powerful offline VM disk manipulation without requiring the VM to be running.