Chapter 9. Getting started with partitions

As a system administrator, you can use the following procedures to create, delete, and modify various types of disk partitions.

For an overview of the advantages and disadvantages to using partitions on block devices, see the following KBase article: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/163853.

9.1. Viewing the partition table

As a system administrator, you can display the partition table of a block device to see the partition layout and details about individual partitions.

9.1.1. Viewing the partition table with parted

This procedure describes how to view the partition table on a block device using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device you want to examine: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the partition table: 

    (parted) print

  3. Optionally, use the following command to switch to another device you want to examine next: 

    (parted) select block-device

Additional resources

  • The parted(8) man page.

9.1.2. Example output of parted print

This section provides an example output of the print command in the parted shell and describes fields in the output.

Example 9.1. Output of the print command

Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZNLN256 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  269MB   268MB   primary   xfs          boot
 2      269MB   34.6GB  34.4GB  primary
 3      34.6GB  45.4GB  10.7GB  primary
 4      45.4GB  256GB   211GB   extended
 5      45.4GB  256GB   211GB   logical

Following is a description of the fields:

Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZNLN256 (scsi)
The disk type, manufacturer, model number, and interface.
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
The file path to the block device and the storage capacity.
Partition Table: msdos
The disk label type.
Number
The partition number. For example, the partition with minor number 1 corresponds to /dev/sda1.
Start and End
The location on the device where the partition starts and ends.
Type
Valid types are metadata, free, primary, extended, or logical.
File system
The file system type. If the File system field of a device shows no value, this means that its file system type is unknown. The parted utility cannot recognize the file system on encrypted devices.
Flags
Lists the flags set for the partition. Available flags are boot, root, swap, hidden, raid, lvm, or lba.

9.2. Creating a partition table on a disk

As a system administrator, you can format a block device with different types of partition tables to enable using partitions on the device.

Warning

Formatting a block device with a partition table deletes all data stored on the device.

9.2.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
Note

Red Hat recommends that, unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, you should at least create the following partitions: swap, /boot/, and / (root).

The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

9.2.2. Comparison of partition table types

This section compares the properties of different types of partition tables that you can create on a block device.

Table 9.1. Partition table types

Partition tableMaximum number of partitionsMaximum partition size

Master Boot Record (MBR)

4 primary, or 3 primary and 12 logical inside an extended partition

2TiB

GUID Partition Table (GPT)

128

8ZiB

9.2.3. Creating a partition table on a disk with parted

This procedure describes how to format a block device with a partition table using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to create a partition table: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. Determine if there already is a partition table on the device: 

    (parted) print

    If the device already contains partitions, they will be deleted in the next steps.

  3. Create the new partition table: 

    (parted) mklabel table-type

    • Replace table-type with with the intended partition table type:

      • msdos for MBR
      • gpt for GPT

    Example 9.2. Creating a GPT table

    For example, to create a GPT table on the disk, use: 

    (parted) mklabel gpt

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  4. View the partition table to confirm that the partition table exists: 

    (parted) print

  5. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

Additional resources

  • The parted(8) man page.

Next steps

9.3. Creating a partition

As a system administrator, you can create new partitions on a disk.

9.3.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
Note

Red Hat recommends that, unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, you should at least create the following partitions: swap, /boot/, and / (root).

The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

9.3.2. Partition types

This section describes different attributes that specify the type of a partition.

Partition types or flags

The partition type, or flag, is used by a running system only rarely. However, the partition type matters to on-the-fly generators, such as systemd-gpt-auto-generator, which use the partition type to, for example, automatically identify and mount devices.

  • The parted utility provides some control of partition types by mapping the partition type to flags. The parted utility can handle only certain partition types: for example LVM, swap, or RAID.
  • The fdisk utility supports the full range of partition types by specifying hexadecimal codes.
Partition file system type

The parted utility optionally accepts a file system type argument when creating a partition. The value is used to:

  • Set the partition flags on MBR, or
  • Set the partition UUID type on GPT. For example, the swap, fat, or hfs file system types set different GUIDs. The default value is the Linux Data GUID.

The argument does not modify the file system on the partition in any way. It only differentiates between the supported flags or GUIDs.

The following file system types are supported:

  • xfs
  • ext2
  • ext3
  • ext4
  • fat16
  • fat32
  • hfs
  • hfs+
  • linux-swap
  • ntfs
  • reiserfs

9.3.3. Partition naming scheme

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses a file-based naming scheme, with file names in the form of /dev/xxyN.

Device and partition names consist of the following structure:

/dev/
This is the name of the directory in which all device files are located. Because partitions are placed on hard disks, and hard disks are devices, the files representing all possible partitions are located in /dev.
xx
The first two letters of the partitions name indicate the type of device on which is the partition located, usually sd.
y
This letter indicates which device the partition is on. For example, /dev/sda for the first hard disk, /dev/sdb for the second, and so on. In systems with more than 26 drives, you can use more letters. For example, /dev/sdaa1.
N
The final letter indicates the number that represents the partition. The first four (primary or extended) partitions are numbered 1 through 4. Logical partitions start at 5. For example, /dev/sda3 is the third primary or extended partition on the first hard disk, and /dev/sdb6 is the second logical partition on the second hard disk. Drive partition numbering applies only to MBR partition tables. Note that N does not always mean partition.
Note

Even if Red Hat Enterprise Linux can identify and refer to all types of disk partitions, it might not be able to read the file system and therefore access stored data on every partition type. However, in many cases, it is possible to successfully access data on a partition dedicated to another operating system.

9.3.4. Mount points and disk partitions

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, each partition is used to form part of the storage necessary to support a single set of files and directories. This is done using the process known as mounting, which associates a partition with a directory. Mounting a partition makes its storage available starting at the specified directory, known as a mount point.

For example, if partition /dev/sda5 is mounted on /usr/, that would mean that all files and directories under /usr/ physically reside on /dev/sda5. So the file /usr/share/doc/FAQ/txt/Linux-FAQ would be stored on /dev/sda5, while the file /etc/gdm/custom.conf would not.

Continuing the example, it is also possible that one or more directories below /usr/ would be mount points for other partitions. For instance, a partition /dev/sda7 could be mounted on /usr/local, meaning that /usr/local/man/whatis would then reside on /dev/sda7 rather than /dev/sda5.

9.3.5. Creating a partition with parted

This procedure describes how to create a new partition on a block device using the parted utility.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to create a partition: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the current partition table to determine if there is enough free space: 

    (parted) print
    • If there is not enough free space, you can resize an existing partition. For more information, see Section 9.5, “Resizing a partition”.

    • From the partition table, determine:

      • The start and end points of the new partition
      • On MBR, what partition type it should be.

  3. Create the new partition: 

    (parted) mkpart part-type name fs-type start end
    • Replace part-type with with primary, logical, or extended based on what you decided from the partition table. This applies only to the MBR partition table.
    • Replace name with an arbitrary partition name. This is required for GPT partition tables.
    • Replace fs-type with any one of xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, linux-swap, ntfs, or reiserfs. The fs-type parameter is optional. Note that parted does not create the file system on the partition.
    • Replace start and end with the sizes that determine the starting and ending points of the partition, counting from the beginning of the disk. You can use size suffixes, such as 512MiB, 20GiB, or 1.5TiB. The default size megabytes.

    Example 9.3. Creating a small primary partition

    For example, to create a primary partition from 1024MiB until 2048MiB on an MBR table, use: 

    (parted) mkpart primary 1024MiB 2048MiB

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  4. View the partition table to confirm that the created partition is in the partition table with the correct partition type, file system type, and size: 

    (parted) print

  5. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

  6. Use the following command to wait for the system to register the new device node: 

    # udevadm settle

  7. Verify that the kernel recognizes the new partition: 

    # cat /proc/partitions

Additional resources

  • The parted(8) man page.

9.3.6. Setting a partition type with fdisk

This procedure describes how to set a partition type, or flag, using the fdisk utility.

Prerequisites

  • There is a partition on the disk.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive fdisk shell: 

    # fdisk block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to set a partition type: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the current partition table to determine the minor partition number: 

    Command (m for help): print

    You can see the current partition type in the Type column and its corresponding type ID in the Id column.

  3. Enter the partition type command and select a partition using its minor number: 

    Command (m for help): type
Partition number (1,2,3 default 3): 2

  4. Optionally, list the available hexadecimal codes: 

    Hex code (type L to list all codes): L

  5. Set the partition type: 

    Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e

  6. Write your changes and exit the fdisk shell: 

    Command (m for help): write
The partition table has been altered.
Syncing disks.

  7. Verify your changes: 

    # fdisk --list block-device

9.4. Removing a partition

As a system administrator, you can remove a disk partition that is no longer used to free up disk space.

Warning

Removing a partition deletes all data stored on the partition.

9.4.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
Note

Red Hat recommends that, unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, you should at least create the following partitions: swap, /boot/, and / (root).

The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

9.4.2. Removing a partition with parted

This procedure describes how to remove a disk partition using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to remove a partition: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the current partition table to determine the minor number of the partition to remove: 

    (parted) print

  3. Remove the partition: 

    (parted) rm minor-number
    • Replace minor-number with the minor number of the partition you want to remove: for example, 3.

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  4. Confirm that the partition is removed from the partition table: 

    (parted) print

  5. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

  6. Verify that the kernel knows the partition is removed: 

    # cat /proc/partitions
  7. Remove the partition from the /etc/fstab file if it is present. Find the line that declares the removed partition, and remove it from the file.

  8. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new /etc/fstab configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  9. If you have deleted a swap partition or removed pieces of LVM, remove all references to the partition from the kernel command line in the /etc/default/grub file and regenerate GRUB configuration:

    • On a BIOS-based system: 

      # grub2-mkconfig --output=/etc/grub2.cfg

    • On a UEFI-based system: 

      # grub2-mkconfig --output=/etc/grub2-efi.cfg

  10. To register the changes in the early boot system, rebuild the initramfs file system: 

    # dracut --force --verbose

Additional resources

  • The parted(8) man page

9.5. Resizing a partition

As a system administrator, you can extend a partition to utilize unused disk space, or shrink a partition to use its capacity for different purposes.

9.5.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
Note

Red Hat recommends that, unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, you should at least create the following partitions: swap, /boot/, and / (root).

The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

9.5.2. Resizing a partition with parted

This procedure resizes a disk partition using the parted utility.

Prerequisites

  • If you want to shrink a partition, back up the data that are stored on it.

    Warning

    Shrinking a partition might result in data loss on the partition.

  • If you want to resize a partition to be larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT). For details on how to format the disk, see Section 9.2, “Creating a partition table on a disk”.

Procedure

  1. If you want to shrink the partition, shrink the file system on it first so that it is not larger than the resized partition. Note that XFS does not support shrinking.

  2. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to resize a partition: for example, /dev/sda.

  3. View the current partition table: 

    (parted) print

    From the partition table, determine:

    • The minor number of the partition
    • The location of the existing partition and its new ending point after resizing

  4. Resize the partition: 

    (parted) resizepart minor-number new-end
    • Replace minor-number with the minor number of the partition that you are resizing: for example, 3.
    • Replace new-end with the size that determines the new ending point of the resized partition, counting from the beginning of the disk. You can use size suffixes, such as 512MiB, 20GiB, or 1.5TiB. The default size megabytes.

    Example 9.4. Extending a partition

    For example, to extend a partition located at the beginning of the disk to be 2GiB in size, use: 

    (parted) resizepart 1 2GiB

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  5. View the partition table to confirm that the resized partition is in the partition table with the correct size: 

    (parted) print

  6. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

  7. Verify that the kernel recognizes the new partition: 

    # cat /proc/partitions
  8. If you extended the partition, extend the file system on it as well. See (reference) for details.

Additional resources

  • The parted(8) man page.