Server Disk Space Summary

Starting in IP Fabric version 5.0.0, the virtual appliance deploys as one hard disk installation instead of two disk volumes.

IP Fabric appliance is using LVM type for root and swap partitions. On a default installation, the swap has 16GB, and root has ~72GB of disk space.

We automatically resize the boot disk as follows:

• resize primary partition to full size of the disk
• resize extended partition to full size of primary partition
• extend ipfabric-vg/root to +100%FREE
• online resize ext4 partition

Increasing Disk Space On IP Fabric Appliance

If you need any help with a disk space expansion, please contact our Support Team

Resizing Root/First Disk

The easiest way how to resize IP Fabric system disk is to

1. Shutdown the appliance

2. Resize root/first disk to a desired size

3. Start virtual machine

cloud-init will take care of resizing this disk.

Expanding System Volume By Adding Additional Disk(s)

If you want to add secondary or any additional disk as a system disk, you will need to manually add it to ipfabric-vg/root volume.

To do that follow LVM resource:

• Debian LVM wiki
• Arch LVM wiki

Local Backup Disk

When enabling local backups, a backup tool creates backups to the /backup directory. The tool first checks if the local backup directory exists and then the backups are created.

Any additional disk (see hypervisor-specific configuration at the bottom of this page) can be mounted as the backup directory. We recommend using an additional disk located on a different datastore than the root volume for the local backups.

Instructions To Mount a Physical Disk To /backup Directory

Find a device which you want to use as the /backup directory. In this case, vdb.

osadmin@ipfabric:~$ lsblk
NAME                    MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
vda                     254:0    0 76,3G  0 disk
├─vda1                  254:1    0  487M  0 part /boot
├─vda2                  254:2    0    1K  0 part
└─vda5                  254:5    0 75,8G  0 part
  ├─ipfabric--vg-swap_1 253:0    0   16G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
  └─ipfabric--vg-root   253:1    0 59,8G  0 lvm  /
vdb                     254:16   0   20G  0 disk             # <- I want to use this device for the /backup directory

1. Create LVM physical volume on the disk vdb:

   osadmin@ipfabric:~$ sudo pvcreate /dev/vdb
     Physical volume "/dev/vdb" successfully created.
   

2. Create the volume group backup-vg:

   osadmin@ipfabric:~$ sudo vgcreate backup-vg /dev/vdb
     Volume group "backup-vg" successfully created
   

3. Use the entire size of the volume group backup-vg for creating the logical volume backup:

   osadmin@ipfabric:~$ sudo lvcreate -n backup -l 100%FREE backup-vg
     Logical volume "backup" created.
   

4. Create a filesystem (in this example ext4) on the logical volume backup:

   osadmin@ipfabric:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/backup--vg-backup
   mke2fs 1.46.2 (28-Feb-2021)
   Discarding device blocks: done
   Creating filesystem with 5241856 4k blocks and 1310720 inodes
   Filesystem UUID: 26bf3259-8421-4b67-ad27-71fa55e57af8
   Superblock backups stored on blocks:
     32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
     4096000
   
   Allocating group tables: done
   Writing inode tables: done
   Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
   Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
   

5. Create a new fstab entry (for example with sudo vi /etc/fstab):

   Info

   We strongly recommend only LVM partition, LABEL and UUID in fstab, for more info see Persistent block device naming.

   /dev/mapper/backup--vg-backup   /backup   ext4   defaults   0   0
   

6. Create the /backup directory:

   sudo mkdir /backup
   

7. The logical volume backup on the disk vdb can be now mounted with:

   sudo mount /backup
   

8. Finally, check the output of lsblk:

   osadmin@ipfabric:~$ lsblk
   NAME                    MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
   vda                     254:0    0 76,3G  0 disk
   ├─vda1                  254:1    0  487M  0 part /boot
   ├─vda2                  254:2    0    1K  0 part
   └─vda5                  254:5    0 75,8G  0 part
     ├─ipfabric--vg-swap_1 253:0    0   16G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
     └─ipfabric--vg-root   253:1    0 59,8G  0 lvm  /
   vdb                     254:16   0   20G  0 disk
   └─backup--vg-backup     253:2    0   20G  0 lvm  /backup
   

Deprecated Resize Wizard

IP Fabric appliance with version lower than 5.0 was using two LVM volumes by default. ipfabic-vg/root for system and data, backup-vg/backup for /backup. System and data volume was extended over two disks (usually first two). For additional drives, one could choose to extend root or backup volume. This option was discontinued in favor of one system/data disk with the possibility of adding a backup disk. The original script is still present in the system, but it is discouraged to use it as it expects only the boot disk to be sda, sdb as extended ipfabic-vg/root, and one could choose how sd[c-z] would be used. The new approach with one disk is more versatile and is not limited to sd[a-z] disks.

Script location: /opt/nimpee/sys-lvm-resize.sh

Increase Disk Space For VMware

Extend Existing Virtual Disk (For System And Data)

1. Open VMware vSphere web console.
2. Right click on VM name and select Edit Settings.
3. Select Hard disk and change its size.
4. Click OK.
5. Restart VM (using CLI or web UI).
6. Disk space is automatically increased if you resized the first drive.

Add New Virtual Disk (As An Additional Backup Disk)

1. Open VMware vSphere web console.
2. Right click on VM name and select Edit Settings.
3. Click Add New Device → Hard Disk
4. Select new size
5. Specify Location:
   1. for system disk expansion is recommended to select Store with the virtual machine
   2. for backup volume is recommended to select different datastore ideally on a different physical storage
6. Click OK
7. Launch Remote (Web) Console.
8. Reboot(Send Ctrl+Alt+Delete function can be also used) or power on IP Fabric VM.
9. Follow Adding additional disk(s) or Example adding disk to backup

Increase Disk Space For Hyper-V

Extend Existing Virtual Disk (For System And Data)

1. Open Hyper-V Manager.
2. Shutdown VM. (when Started, HyperV won’t let you change any hardware settings)
3. Right click on VM name and select Settings.
4. Select IDE Controller - Hard Drive - ipfabric-x-x-x-disk1.vhdx
5. Click Edit - Choose Action - select option Expand, click Next.
6. Set up required disk size and click Finish.
7. Start VM.
8. Disk space is automatically increased, if you resized the first disk.

Add New Virtual Disk (As An Additional Backup Disk)

1. Open HyperV Manager.
2. Shutdown VM. (when Started, HyperV won’t let you change any hardware settings)
3. Right click on VM name an select Settings.
4. Select IDE Controller 1 - Hard Drive - click Add
5. Select Virtual hard disk - click New - select Choose Disk Format - select VHDX - click Next.
6. Select Dynamically expanding - click Next
7. Specify name and location of disk.
8. Configure Disk - select Create a new blank virtual hard disk - change Size to required value - click Finish.
9. Apply new disk on Settings window - close Settings.
10. Start VM.
11. Follow Adding additional disk(s) or Example adding disk to backup