Add KVM storage pool

If you run out of disk space you may add a new disk.

Note

KVM mush then be informed about this new space available by creating a new storage pool.

Add the drive to the system

After booting with the new drive, check dmesg to find out the name of the new disk. It will probably be called /dev/sdSOMETHING.

Double check this is actually the new disk, if not you may erase all the contents of the system. Type df to see the old disk partitions.

Create a new partition with fdisk. It should show it as empty. Add only one primary partition for all the free space.

Replace sdX by the real name of the new device:

sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

Format it with large files tunning:

sudo mkfs.ext4 -m 0.001 -T largefile /dev/sdX1

Mount the new partition

First find out the UUID. Copy the UUID value, use it for the next step.

blkid | grep sdX1

Add this new partition to the filesystem table:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/libvirt/images.2
sudo vim /etc/fstab
UUID=e5ff57d7-cde6-4117-ac5d-1b14ac5b218f  /var/lib/libvirt/images.2 ext4  auto    0   3

It will mount it next time you boot, but it can be used without rebooting issuing:

sudo mount -a

Add the drive to the Virtual Manager

sudo virsh pool-define-as pool2 dir - - - - /var/lib/libvirt/images.2
sudo virsh pool-autostart pool2
sudo virsh pool-start pool2
sudo virsh pool-list

And that’s it, now Ravada will use the pool that has more empty space the next time it needs to create a volume. If you want to fine tune what storage pool is used by default follow the advanced settings documentation .