Redhat 8 Laptop
The default virtual machine software that comes with RHEL 8
Cent OS 7 running inside of that virtual machine.

I have the above setup on a laptop that isn't mine.

The partitioning scheme done inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of the virtual machine isn't adequate for the complex application I am using the lap top for.

The person responsible for setting up the laptop ( not his primary job nor his primary expertise ) told me that the partition scheme for Cent OS 7 running in the virtual machine can not be changed. The Cent OS 7 installation in the virtual machine would need to be blown away and reinstalled.

I don't want that as it would be a lot of work for him, I would have to wait for him to have a chance to do it, and it would cost me a lot of time to reset up the environment again.

I'm willing to do it myself, which would involve learning about how to update partitions in Linux.

However, before I take that trouble I would like to know if this guy is correct.

Is it possible to add new partitions and expand existing partition inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of a virtual machine?

Is he right that I have to delete that copy of Cent OS 7 in the VM and start over?

Thanks for any clues

Steve

Am Montag, 07. Februar 2022, um 23:09:47 Uhr schrieb Steve Mysterious:

> The person responsible for setting up the laptop ( not his primary
> job nor his primary expertise ) told me that the partition scheme for
> Cent OS 7 running in the virtual machine can not be changed. The
> Cent OS 7 installation in the virtual machine would need to be blown
> away and reinstalled.
>
> I don't want that as it would be a lot of work for him, I would have
> to wait for him to have a chance to do it, and it would cost me a
> lot of time to reset up the environment again.

Create a backup of the entire virtual disk before performing the change.

> Is it possible to add new partitions and expand existing partition
> inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of a virtual machine?

Yes, but not if the OS mounted that partition. You need to boot a live
system to change the partitions.

> Is he right that I have to delete that copy of Cent OS 7 in the VM
> and start over?

No, just boot a live system and change the partitions.

On Mon, 7 Feb 2022 23:09:47 -0800 (PST), Steve Mysterious wrote:
> Redhat 8 Laptop
> The default virtual machine software that comes with RHEL 8
> Cent OS 7 running inside of that virtual machine.
>
>
> I have the above setup on a laptop that isn't mine.
>
> The partitioning scheme done inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of the virtual machine isn't adequate for the complex application I am using the lap top for.
>
> The person responsible for setting up the laptop ( not his primary job nor his primary expertise ) told me that the partition scheme for Cent OS 7 running in the virtual machine can not be changed. The Cent OS 7 installation in the virtual machine would need to be blown away and reinstalled.
>
> I don't want that as it would be a lot of work for him, I would have to wait for him to have a chance to do it, and it would cost me a lot of time to reset up the environment again.
>
> I'm willing to do it myself, which would involve learning about how to update partitions in Linux.
>
> However, before I take that trouble I would like to know if this guy is correct.
>
> Is it possible to add new partitions and expand existing partition inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of a virtual machine?
>
> Is he right that I have to delete that copy of Cent OS 7 in the VM and start over?

putting change vm partition size in the first box at
https://www.google.com/advanced_search
gets me
About 4,960,000 results (0.46 seconds)

Always helps to give details, In this tread the detail would be which
Virtual Machine software is being used. VMware or VirtualBox.

Then I guess you need to run a partition tool to extend the guest OS
partition in the new VM guest drive.

Steve Mysterious <tinker123@gmail.com> wrote:
>Is it possible to add new partitions and expand existing partition inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of a virtual machine?

Create new virtual disk
Create new virtual machine running a rescue system, for example, grml,
and has access to both virtual disks (Important: new disk first)
Partition new virtual disk the way you want. pay attention to not
accidentally partition the old virtual disk.
Mount both file system trees the way they should be, to /mnt/old and
/mnt/new
copy over system from old to new
bind mount /dev to /mnt/new/dev
chroot to /mnt/new
mount proc, sys
install grub
update grub

Create new virtual machine having only the new disk
if that one doesn't boot:
reboot with recue system
Mount file system tree the way they should be, to /mnt/new
bind mount /dev to /mnt/new/dev
chroot to /mnt/new
mount proc, sys
install grub
update grub

Greetings
Marc
--
-------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! -----
Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " |
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834

On 2022-02-08 00:09, Steve Mysterious wrote:

> Is it possible to add new partitions and expand existing partition inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of a virtual machine?
>
Yes.

> Is he right that I have to delete that copy of Cent OS 7 in the VM and start over?
>
Maybe. Depends. It may be the easiest way. Or not.
You have not given enough information to be certain of the best advice to offer.
- Which virtual app are you using?
- What is the required partitioning?
- What is your current partitioning?
- How much space is required?

--
James Moe
jmm-list at sohnen-moe dot com
Think.

Yes. But you cannot alter the root drive, at least
not from within the VM. There are ways in KVM and
VBox to enlarge or shrink (enlarging is easier) in
both VM systems - it's easier in VBox, KVM tends to
require more work in the terminal. You can expand
the space available to the root, but you also have
to do some tricks to expand the drive into the
expanded space.

But WITHIN the expanded space, no problems. The VM
thinks it's a real PC. You can use gparted or
whatever to create new drives.

On 08/02/22 08:16, Marco Moock wrote:
> Am Montag, 07. Februar 2022, um 23:09:47 Uhr schrieb Steve Mysterious:
>
>> The person responsible for setting up the laptop ( not his primary
>> job nor his primary expertise ) told me that the partition scheme for
>> Cent OS 7 running in the virtual machine can not be changed. The
>> Cent OS 7 installation in the virtual machine would need to be blown
>> away and reinstalled.
>>
>> I don't want that as it would be a lot of work for him, I would have
>> to wait for him to have a chance to do it, and it would cost me a
>> lot of time to reset up the environment again.
>

Premising I couldn't understand which SW (virtual manager)
was being used ...
Premising also that I will refer to just to Oracle
VirtualBox ...

> Create a backup of the entire virtual disk before performing the change.

why not to simply take a "snapshot" ?
This is fast and normally saves only changes (on a
sector-basis).

Sometime, i.g. if you PREPEND a partition before the
existing one, and all sectors must be shifted downstream,
then this is maybe slower than a "external cloning" of the
files.

But if the partition is APPENDED and few sectors change, it
is both faster and space-efficient to use snapshotting.

>
>> Is it possible to add new partitions and expand existing partition
>> inside of Cent OS 7 running inside of a virtual machine?
>
> Yes, but not if the OS mounted that partition. You need to boot a live
> system to change the partitions.
>
>> Is he right that I have to delete that copy of Cent OS 7 in the VM
>> and start over?
>
> No, just boot a live system and change the partitions.
>

what MANAGER is being used ?

--
1) Resistere, resistere, resistere.
2) Se tutti pagano le tasse, le tasse le pagano tutti
Soviet_Mario - (aka Gatto_Vizzato)

On 2/8/22 11:56 PM, 25.BZ942 wrote:
> Yes. But you cannot alter the root drive, at least
> not from within the VM. There are ways in KVM and
> VBox to enlarge or shrink (enlarging is easier) in
> both VM systems - it's easier in VBox, KVM tends to
> require more work in the terminal. You can expand
> the space available to the root, but you also have
> to do some tricks to expand the drive into the
> expanded space.
>
> But WITHIN the expanded space, no problems. The VM
> thinks it's a real PC. You can use gparted or
> whatever to create new drives.

Practical update ... in VBox, after you enlarge the
virtual disk using the VBox interface I discovered
that you can then use gparted to conveniently enlarge
the ext4 partition - even if it's the one and only
active partition. As swap really isn't needed, I
did "swapoff --ALL" and then deleted the swap (this
was a debian install). Then, using gparted, I just
expanded sda1. All done :-)

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 2:03:27 AM UTC-5, Soviet_Mario wrote:
> On 08/02/22 08:16, Marco Moock wrote:
> > Am Montag, 07. Februar 2022, um 23:09:47 Uhr schrieb Steve Mysterious:
> >
> >> The person responsible for setting up the laptop ( not his primary
> >> job nor his primary expertise ) told me that the partition scheme for
> >> Cent OS 7 running in the virtual machine can not be changed. The
> >> Cent OS 7 installation in the virtual machine would need to be blown
> >> away and reinstalled.
> >>
> >> I don't want that as it would be a lot of work for him, I would have
> >> to wait for him to have a chance to do it, and it would cost me a
> >> lot of time to reset up the environment again.

> what MANAGER is being used ?

https://i2.paste.pics/ba6681ff3b6bbdda1a7ced4c6c9e0900.png