Increase VM Storage 💾

Expanding your storage of your Debian 12 VM requires resizing both the volume and the filesystem. This guide provides step-by-step instructions.

Prerequisites

• Proxmox VE access with permissions to manage VMs.
• VM running Debian 12 (documentation for other OS would be useful later on as well)
• Root or sudo access inside the VM.
• [recommended] Backup your VM or take a Proxmox snapshot.

1. Resize the Volume in Proxmox 🛠️

Follow these steps to increase the virtual machine's storage volume:

1. Turn off the VM.
2. Open Proxmox, and select your VM.
3. Navigate to Hardware.
4. Select Hard Disk.
5. Click Disk actions → Resize.
6. Enter the size increment, then click Resize disk.
7. Turn on the VM.

2. Resize Storage Within the VM 🧩

Once the disk has been resized in Proxmox, additional steps are required inside the VM.

2.1 Modify the Partition Using cfdisk 🧱

1. Open cfdisk:

   • Run the following command to see the free space allocated.

     sudo cfdisk
     

2. Resize your main storage partition:

   • Select your storage partition (take note of the name, e.g. on my case it's /dev/sda3).
   • Select Resize (Set it to the TOTAL storage capacity you want, it should default to the max available storage).
   • Press Enter.
   • Select Write, type yes, and press Enter.
   • If you see The partition table has been altered, the process was successful.
   • Press q to exit cfdisk.

2.2 Resize the Physical Volume (pvresize) 📦

1. Use pvresize to expand the partition.

   Storage Partition Path

   Storage partition paths vary; in this guide, we use /dev/sda3.

   Templated Command:

   sudo pvresize <partition-path>
   

   Example:

   sudo pvresize /dev/sda3
   

2. Verify the changes:

   sudo vgdisplay
   

   • The Free PE / Size row should reflect the increased storage.

2.3 Extend the Logical Volume (lvextend) 🧮

1. Find your <lv-path>:

   sudo lvdisplay
   

   • Look for LV Path, e.g., /dev/debian-test-vg/root.

2. Extend the Logical Volume using lvextend.

   Logical Volume Path

   Logical Volume paths vary; in this guide, we use /dev/debian-test-vg/root.

   Templated Command:

   sudo lvextend -l +100%FREE <lv-path>
   

   Example:

   sudo lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/debian-test-vg/root
   

3. Verify the change:

   sudo lvdisplay
   

   • The LV Size should now reflect the increased storage.

2.4 Resize the Root Filesystem 🧬

1. Identify the Logical Volume:

   sudo df -h
   

   • Look for your mounted logical volume, e.g., /dev/mapper/debian--test--vg-root.

2. Resize the root filesystem:

   Logical Volume Path

   Logical Volume paths vary; in this guide, we use /dev/mapper/debian--test--vg-root.

   Templated Command:

   sudo resize2fs <logical-volume-path>
   

   Example:

   sudo resize2fs /dev/mapper/debian--test--vg-root
   

3. Verify the new storage size:

   sudo df -h
   

   • The available storage should now be increased.

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Awwww yeah!

🎉 Congratulations! 🎉

Your Debian 12 VM should now have successfully resized storage! 🚀

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