resize2fs: Permission denied to resize filesystem

Question

Hi all, I expanded a non-root EBS volume, but I'm encountering an error with extending the file system.  Here's the error:

>sudo resize2fs /dev/nvme1n1
>
>resize2fs 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014)
>
>Filesystem at /dev/nvme1n1 is mounted on /data; on-line resizing required
>
>old_desc_blocks = 4, new_desc_blocks = 7
>
>resize2fs: Permission denied to resize filesystem

When I unmount the volume and try again, I get

>Please run 'e2fsck -f /dev/nvme1n1' first.

This will no doubt take a long time, and I depend on the volume for operational processes.

The volume (newly resized to 100G) has no partitions:

>lsblk
>
>NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
>
>nvme0n1     259:0    0     8G  0 disk 
>
>└─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0     8G  0 part /
>
>nvme1n1     259:2    0   100G  0 disk /data

The volume is only recognized as its old 50G size.  I did detach/reattach and also rebooted the instance.

>df -hT
>
>Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>
>udev           devtmpfs  1.9G  4.0K  1.9G   1% /dev
>
>tmpfs          tmpfs     372M  328K  372M   1% /run
>
>/dev/nvme0n1p1 ext4      7.8G  5.5G  1.9G  75% /
>
>none           tmpfs     4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
>
>none           tmpfs     5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
>
>none           tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /run/shm
>
>none           tmpfs     100M     0  100M   0% /run/user
>
>/dev/nvme1n1   ext4       50G   45G  2.1G  96% /data

Anyone have suggestions?

Many thanks,
Richard

Accepted Answer

The error `resize2fs: Permission denied to resize filesystem` is key here.

Red Hat's Knoweldgebase (needs a login) addresses this in https://access.redhat.com/solutions/2420621

Can you run `sudo dumpe2fs /dev/nvme1n1 | head -20` and what does it say on the `Filesystem state:` line? If it's anything other than `clean` then this is your problem.

FWIW I spun up a new EC2 instance to match your setup, and it works fine for me (growing an ext4 FS from 5GB -> 10GB), so your method is sound.
```
[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# lsblk
NAME          MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme1n1       259:0    0   5G  0 disk /data
nvme0n1       259:1    0   8G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1   259:2    0   8G  0 part /
├─nvme0n1p127 259:3    0   1M  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p128 259:4    0  10M  0 part /boot/efi
[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# df -hT
Filesystem       Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs         devtmpfs  4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs            tmpfs     453M     0  453M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs            tmpfs     182M  444K  181M   1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p1   xfs       8.0G  1.5G  6.5G  19% /
tmpfs            tmpfs     453M     0  453M   0% /tmp
/dev/nvme0n1p128 vfat       10M  1.3M  8.7M  13% /boot/efi
tmpfs            tmpfs      91M     0   91M   0% /run/user/1000
/dev/nvme1n1     ext4      4.9G   24K  4.6G   1% /data

[ change the EBS volume size in AWS Console here ]

[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# lsblk
NAME          MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme1n1       259:0    0  10G  0 disk /data
nvme0n1       259:1    0   8G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1   259:2    0   8G  0 part /
├─nvme0n1p127 259:3    0   1M  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p128 259:4    0  10M  0 part /boot/efi
[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# resize2fs /dev/nvme1n1
resize2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
Filesystem at /dev/nvme1n1 is mounted on /data; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 2
The filesystem on /dev/nvme1n1 is now 2621440 (4k) blocks long.

[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# df -hT
Filesystem       Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs         devtmpfs  4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs            tmpfs     453M     0  453M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs            tmpfs     182M  448K  181M   1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p1   xfs       8.0G  1.5G  6.5G  19% /
tmpfs            tmpfs     453M     0  453M   0% /tmp
/dev/nvme0n1p128 vfat       10M  1.3M  8.7M  13% /boot/efi
tmpfs            tmpfs      91M     0   91M   0% /run/user/1000
/dev/nvme1n1     ext4      9.8G   24K  9.3G   1% /data
[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# dumpe2fs /dev/nvme1n1 | head -20
dumpe2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
Filesystem volume name:   
Last mounted on:          
Filesystem UUID:          ef2b157b-0c80-440f-a5e6-604669c2fd50
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery extent 64bit flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file dir_nlink extra_isize metadata_csum
Filesystem flags:         signed_directory_hash 
Default mount options:    user_xattr acl
Filesystem state:         clean   ********** THIS LINE HERE **********
Errors behavior:          Continue
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              655360
Block count:              2621440
Reserved block count:     120585
Overhead clusters:        63273
Free blocks:              2558161
Free inodes:              655349
First block:              0
Block size:               4096
Fragment size:            4096
[root@ip-172-31-15-154 ~]# 
```

Answer

I believe you will have to change the size of the partition on the disk first with `fdisk` to see the new size.  After that you can grow the file system with `resize2fs`.

Run `fdisk -l /dev/nvme1n1` to see the current disk partitioning.

This guide walks through the process of resizing the partition.  
https://geekpeek.net/resize-filesystem-fdisk-resize2fs/

WARNING!!! This can be a dangerous process.  I would recommend creating a snapshot of your volume beforehand so that you can recreate your instance if something goes wrong.

Hope this helps!

resize2fs: Permission denied to resize filesystem

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