I installed Fedora server on the 500 GB ssd, but somehow, it created a 16GB Block device and discarded all the rest of the space.
So in that SSD I only have:
1- /boot/Efi at device /dev/sdb1 as EFI System
2- XFS as /boot/ at device /dev/sdb2 as Extended boot partition
3- LVM2 Physical volume at /dev/sdb3 that does not even appear on df -h. (498 GB)
What is the best way of putting the 498 free space at work as part of Root or /home ?
I am not the only one with this issue, so it is something stupid that some stupid people lije donāt know how to solve: Reddit - Dive into anything
Please point me to documentation so I can learn how to fish.
Computer is a 2011 IMAC that I rpurposed to install fedora server.
You should be able to do this with āgpartedā or other Fedora partition manager, disk manager.
You say you are on āserverā? There are command line or graphical options depending on how you access the system.
Yes on server, but I installed Gnome just to have some graphical interface.
I tried to format that 498 GB as ext4 but it says it is busy.
The thing isā¦ I donāt even know where it is picking up those 16GBā¦ it looks lijke an external driveā¦ but there isnāt any
You can customise this during the install process.
My usual practice is to create a separate /var partition that is sized for my serverās use case. Say 100GiB, where logs temp files and caches will be stored.
Isnāt all the unused disk space in LVM? You should be able to use LVM tools to allocate space for new partitions.
If you have only just created the server then maybe do the unstall again with what you know about your needs?
So the installer does not have th āintelligenceā to use the complete space? I have to manually define the partition sizes during installā¦ correct?
It must be on the 10TB HDD. As Barry suggested I would reinstall, but for the reason of putting your system files on the SSD.
ALso, may I ask if you really need āserverā It may be easier to learn on Fedora Workstation (Gnome) or a minimal install. You can still bring in any server like functions you require. Server is great for remote deployments as it comes with a nice web-based console.
Been using it for plex server and other server duties, and off course, to learn something about serversā¦
About the web base console I am using cockpit for the most caseā¦ I only installed gnome to have the screen sleep, and to have soem graphical clues when hitting web /terminal walls.
Will be performing a complete reinstall adding all the free space to /var/ and /home/
The server install is targeted toward the āAdminā folk who want to decide the disk layout for themselves. Nothing wrong with what you are doing, but the design of the āspinā has a slightly more steep learning curve.
For Server we expect that the user is smarter then the developers.
It is almost always an error to allocate all the storage for a Server application.
You need to know what the use case is. For example my main Server has 17 partitions.
As I said I think you will find that the ācomplete spaceā has been put into a Volume Group so that you can create partitions of the size and file system that makes sense for your use case.
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/fedora_unknownc82a1421cb95-root 15G 14G 1.5G 90% /
LVM is in use here. The 489GB partition is indeed in use. Itās a physical volume of the LVM volume group fedora_unknownc82a1421cb95. Your root file system is a logical volume ārootā within that logical volume group.
You can decipher how this all gets put together with the following LVM commands
vgs
pvs
lvs
You can resize the root logical volume and the root file system to use some (or all) of the free space in the volume group by using LVM tools such as lvextend and fsadm. In most cases you should be able to do this on-line with no reboot.
Youād also use LVM tools to create new file systems in that unused space. Youād create new logical volumes from the volume group, create a new file system on that logical volume, and modify /etc/fstab to mount that file system on a mount point of your choice if thatās the way you want to go.
And Fedora isnāt the only server distro to leave it up to the admin to create the desired file system configuration. Ubuntu Serverās installer behaves similarly, for example.
Aaaaand I broke itā¦ now it doensāt find āfedora_unknownc82a1421cb95-rootāā¦ my bad.
so, basicallyā¦
It was already a pain to manage partitions, so we felt the need to add LVMs on top, that give more flexibility, by allowing to create logical volumesā¦ but require different tools to manageā¦
Also summing Partition space + Logical drives doesnāt add upā¦ as you can see up top where I had 498 GB free of 500GB, but with an āextraā 16 GB on the logical volume (but that were already occupined on the 498 GB).
Did I get it right?
I think LVM is wonderful. It allows me to create app specific partions as I need them at the size I need them, and grow or shrink them as the suituation demands.
Server assumes that you have enough admin skills to use these tools.
I understand @jpcarvalhinhoās concern about another tool with another learning curve.
But I agree with @barryascott that once you take the time to learn LVM, itās worth the investment. Especially on servers.
Partition management is a pain in the neck to deal with if you under-size them at initial creation or need to expand them in the future. Been there, done that, have the scars to prove it. LVM performs most of its operations on-line, with no or minimal disruption. Thatās not something you can say about partition manipulation.