File system resizing

A file system is assigned a specific size as soon as it is created; the file system may become too small or too large as changes in file system usage take place over time.

VxFS is capable of increasing or decreasing the file system size while in use. Many competing file systems can not do this. The VxFS utility fsadm can expand or shrink a file system without unmounting the file system or interrupting user productivity. However, to expand a file system, the underlying device on which it is mounted must be expandable.

VxVM facilitates expansion using virtual disks that can be increased in size while in use. The VxFS and VxVM packages complement each other to provide online expansion capability. Use the vxresize command when resizing both the volume and the file system. The vxresize command guarantees that the file system shrinks or grows along with the volume. You can also use the the vxassist command combined with the fsadm_vxfs command for this purpose; however, Symantec recommends that you use the vxresize command instead.

See the vxresize(1M) manual page.

See Growing the existing storage by adding a new LUN.