Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
20 lines (12 loc) · 2.39 KB

LargerThanDefaultRootEBS_EL6.md

File metadata and controls

20 lines (12 loc) · 2.39 KB

Using Larger-Than-Default-Root EBS

With the release of the June 2016 AMIs, support for launching instances with larger-than-default root EBSes was added. This added the dracut-modules-growroot EPEL RPM to the "Thin" AMI and extended the RPM's functionality to include support for "/" hosted on LVM2 volumes. The patched functionality is implemented via GrowSetup.sh build-script

Note: a BugZilla has been opened with the EPEL RPM's maintainer. The patching effected within the build-script will be deprecated if/when the bug is fixed.

To make use of this functionality:

  1. Launch an instance from the June 2016 (or newer) "Thin" AMI. On the storage selection screen (if using the Web Console), change the default size value to a more-preferred value.
  2. Run the hardening framework (and any other provisioning-time automation) and allow instance to reboot
  3. Login to the instance and gain root privileges
  4. Run "pvresize /dev/xvda2" to ensure that LVM2 "sees" the extra storage in the PV hosting the root volume-group [Note: LVM2 should have properly rescanned the PVs after the reboot. If, however, the "pvresize" fails to increase the size of the PV from the default to the expected size, run "pvscan" and then re-run the "pvresize"]
  5. Iteratively use "lvresize -r VolGroup00/<volName>" to resize any of the volumes in the root volume-group to their desired size

The final two setps can be placed into an automated-provisionion sequence as a post-reboot task (e.g., place into /etc/rc.d/rc.local — ensuring to also auto-delete the rc.local tasks once executed)

Note on Expected Usage

It should be stressed that the above is primarily intended for use by users that have larger-than normal logging need (i.e., use the extra space to increase the size of logVol and/or auditVol), want a larger swap partition (i.e., use the extra space to grow swapVol ...though better performance would be achieved using instance storage for swapping-activities) or need additional home directory space (i.e., use the extra space to grow homeVol). Application binaries and data should still be placed onto EBSes (and associated volume-groups) separate from the OS's root volume-group.