Increasing "actual size" from the VM to increase space for pfsense

johnpoz · Oct 15, 2013, 3:46 AM

What?? Really that is his issue? Customized what exactly - what widgets are on the system info page?

Your just F'ing with me right?

kejianshi · Oct 15, 2013, 3:50 AM

Nope - I don't think so. He has customizations he wants to keep.
Primarily cosmetic stuff I think.
I understand him, but I think those sorts of customizations are fairly futile long term because of this very issue.

johnpoz · Oct 15, 2013, 4:07 AM

If all he is looking for is more space for proxy cache, this is the same guy from that thread isn't it? I am guessing pfsense created 8GB partition no matter what size disk he gave the vm? I know that is what esxi recommands for size when you say freebsd as virtual machine type.

Can't he just add another Virtual disk to the VM and partition and mount and tell his cache to be there? Why does he have to do anything with resizing anything pfsense OS disks?

If I get some time I will fire up a new vm copy and get it a big drive and see what happens when you install pfsense about disk size.. Mine is only 4GB in esxi. And I don't do proxy/cache on mine so its only using currently 22% of 2.9G on the web gui.. Which doesn't include the swap partition, etc..

kejianshi · Oct 15, 2013, 4:13 AM

Actually - Yes he could.

onlineph · Oct 24, 2013, 9:52 AM

@johnpoz:

Can't he just add another Virtual disk to the VM and partition and mount and tell his cache to be there? Why does he have to do anything with resizing anything pfsense OS disks?

Hi there. Thanks for taking time to look into my very concern. Yeah you're right, my very problem is the VB dynamic disk that never grows, just like now. One of my pf box already hit 100% disk space yet I have a 100G virtual disk. It never grow really.

I like the idea of just creating another virtual dis to the VM and mount it and tell pfsense to store the cache there. I love that idea but to iplement it, I'm in a limbp unless you'll have to guide me really. I'm not a programmer or a techie guy, I just learned some stuff from this forum and still learning from you experts so, please do help e on this.

Of first, I'll create another VM disk. Anyway, i'm using the oracle virtualbox. so please let's get started.

Supermule · Oct 24, 2013, 10:08 AM

Try this:

Vsphere client -> log into the Esxi -> Mark the pfsense VM -> right click on datastore -> Browse datastore for Pfsense VM -> Rightclick Pfsense VM -> click on inflate -> Wait until finish -> reboot pfsense VM

Test if working

johnpoz · Oct 24, 2013, 1:03 PM

^ he is using virtualbox ;)

So you don't know how to add a disk to a vm in virtual disk? Or you don't know how to work with another disk in freebsd/pfsense?

Here is help with freebsd
http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-adding.html

sure you can google how to add another disk to a vm in virtualbox.

onlineph · Oct 24, 2013, 2:15 PM

I thought I don't know how to add a new disk. I just did created another disk in the VM. I'll try to check with the link hopefully its not that techie so I may understand it.

onlineph · Oct 24, 2013, 2:31 PM

Gosh! I'm totally lost!

I'm so sorry I can't follow those instructions. Can somebody guide me in lay man's terms?

I not have a IDE primary master and IDE Secondary Master. So please just simplify a guide on how will I tell pfsense to store the cache in the IDE secondary master (virtual disk).

Supermule · Oct 24, 2013, 2:38 PM

Just note the name of the second drive. IDE secondary is old fashioned and physical disks…

You just need the name of the virtual disk

johnpoz · Oct 24, 2013, 3:24 PM

Ok – so you added this disk in virtualbox

Can you please reboot pfsense, and then do a couple of commands so we can see that the disk is there

example you say your disks are IDE? this should work then

[2.1-RELEASE][root@pfsense.local.lan]/root(2): atacontrol list
ATA channel 0:
Master: no device present
Slave: no device present
ATA channel 1:
Master: acd0 <vmware virtual="" ide="" cdrom="" drive="" 00000001="">ATA/ATAPI revision 4
Slave: no device present

I don't have any disks connected via IDE in my virtual setup.. another command would be

[2.1-RELEASE][root@pfsense.local.lan]/root(3): sysctl kern.disks
kern.disks: da0

There is my disk da0, in your output we should see your 2 now?

another command you could do is
[2.1-RELEASE][root@pfsense.local.lan]/root(6): camcontrol devlist
<vmware virtual="" disk="" 1.0=""> at scbus0 target 0 lun 0 (da0,pass0)
[2.1-RELEASE][root@pfsense.local.lan]/root(7):

See there is my scsi disk at da0 again.. This would also show you usb, etc.

Once we see the disk we can walk you through creating a file system on it that fills the disk and mounting it so you can use it as your cache.</vmware></vmware>

kejianshi · Oct 26, 2013, 3:32 AM

I'm really suprised you still have not just created a disk that isn't the dynamic / inflating type and reinstalled.

basitkhan · Dec 11, 2013, 5:59 AM

hi..

I was facing the same issue, but today i fixed it by using very useful tutorial and follow the steps as mentioned in the following link

http://www.unibia.com/unibianet/freebsd/resize-your-existing-freebsd-root-partitionslice-safely-without-re-installing

Great work!

onlineph · Dec 11, 2013, 7:00 AM

@kijianshi – Yeah I did already actually I am trying the fresh installation from 203 and/or 2.1 but am having a "cp downt suport long mode" error. Dont know what to do. I have created a new thread for the error.