PfSense 2.1.5-RELEASE resize hdd after install

[oleg82]

Hi? a have a problem? i want to resize partition after install pfsense? how can i do this ?
ad4/1 - want set size 100G
thanks.

[2.1.5-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/root(1): gpart show
=>       63  976773105  ad4  MBR  (465G)
         63     976689    1  freebsd  [active]  (476M)
     976752  975796416    2  freebsd  (465G)

=>     0  976689  ad4s1  BSD  (476M)
       0      16         - free -  (8.0k)
      16  763681      1  freebsd-ufs  (372M)
  763697  212992      2  freebsd-swap  (104M)

[stephenw10]

Almost certainly easiest to re-install, using the custom type to set the slice sizes, then restore your config.

Steve

[oleg82]

Thanks Steve, i think about re-install, but machine works fine, and I don't want to do this.
Any idea about resize without re-install.
Anyone do like this?

[kejianshi]

I agree with stephenw10.

Backup your setting, wipe, reinstall and restore settings is best.

Your attempts to resize a partition will probably just end in a broken pfsense.

[Supermule]

Thats why running thing in a hypervisor is great! :D

[stephenw10]

Out of interest what are you wanting to use 100GB for?

You could try this:
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-growing.html

Boot from a live CD that can handle UFS such as GhostBSD or PC-BSD (or the pfSense live cd) and attempt to grow the slice.

Steve

[kejianshi]

Thinking about running a big cache maybe?  How much ram is in the machine?

[oleg82]

Thanks all for you reply.
I want to do change size of partition  it because i don't want to make shutdown router.
I have WAN 250 Mb optical connection, and OPT1 5Mb sattelite connection for failover.

Hardware:
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.80GHz
1Gb RAM
500GB HDD
3 1Gb LAN

500Gb minimal size hard disk that i can buy in shop)

100Gb partition just for example. It may be 50 or even 20 Gb. Larger partition i want to use for other tasks.

I  installed
OpenVPN server
ZAbbix agent
PFblocker  (for blocking Facebook CIDR)

Planned:
Asterisk
maybe Snort

[stephenw10]

@oleg82:

i don't want to make shutdown router.

I don't think you'll be able to do it without shutting down. I don't think you can resize the slice you booted from which is why it's usually done from a live CD. I've never tried to do it though so I could be wrong.  ;)

Steve

[robi]

Indeed:

Growing a live UFS file system is only possible in FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE and later. For earlier versions, the file system must not be mounted.

That means you have to boot from a LiveCD to do it, since pfSense 2.1.5 is baset on FreeBSD 8.

[Guest]

Greetings,

I had my share of such HDD/FlashUSB resizing needs/issues and I usually proceed as follows:
I happen to own Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2010 Server Edition which has a built in "rescue disk creation" function.
Using that, I created boot CDs and Flash USB disks to startup any intel/amd based hardware.
When I boot with the rescue disk I have access to the full Paragon Disk Manager functionality which includes drive partitioning resizing, etc.
I use the resizing function to change my partitions. This version of Paragon is Linux aware and moves things around properly.

To the best of my recollection only once I had problems and I believe it was on a flashdisk for beaglebone black (not pfsense related obviously).

Historically I was successful in doing the same with other commercial software such as PartitionMaster, etc.

If you don't have one of those, you may want to check if they have free versions as "rescue disks". (Paragon and EASEUS websites)

Finally, as a completely free linux product you might want to try bitdefender's rescue disk. I believe they have a gparted version capable of doing the same. I hope I am not mistaken as I haven't used it in a while.

Hope this helps.
Halea