Bug#358001: partman: please create ext3 file systems with online resize support

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

Package:  partman-ext3
Version:  40
Severity: important

As explained in bug #341703, the Linux kernel has supported online
resizing of ext3 file systems since kernel version 2.6.10.  This make
it possible to increase the file systems without umounting them, a
requirement when using Linux as a file server where the services can
not be stopped to increase the file system.

To be able to resize an ext3 file system without umounting it, it must
be created with the resize_inode option.  For example like this:

  mke2fs -O has_journal,resize_inode /dev/vg_system/lv_test

Please change the default setting used by partman when creating an
ext3 file system to enable online resizing.

An alternative if partman is still creating ext2 and converting it to
ext3 using tune2fs -j, is to use the ext2prepare program to add the
resize_inode option.

  mke2fs /dev/vg_system/lv_test
  tune2fs -j /dev/vg_system/lv_test
  ext2prepare /dev/vg_system/lv_test

Friendly,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen