How to expand EBS storage in AWS.

Running out of space on your EC2 instance that is using EBS storage might seem like a big deal. However, it is actually a simple process to resolve. This article will show you how to expand EBS storage in AWS. On standard Linux servers you would use just expand your LVM volumes, with AWS it’s even easier. This example is in conjunction with a Bitnami WordPress AMI’s.

Going to the AWS Console

The first step on how to expand EBS storage is you’ll need to login to your AWS console and find your instance. To ensure you are working with the correct one, I would filter by instance as shown here so you only see the EC2 instance you need to work on. We need to increase our root volume on /dev/sda1 which started with just 10 GBs of RAM.

You will expand the EBS storage on this device.

Stop the EC2 instance before expanding EBS.

To increase the EBS storage for your EC2 instance you will need to stop the EC2 instance first. Do this by going to Actions -> Instnace State -> Stop

Stop the EC2 instance before you can expand the EBS storage

Then on the left, you will see the area for Elastic Block Store, choose Volumes. Then choose Actions -> Modify Volume. The areas you can modify are shown. Increase the volume to the amount you need. Keep in mind EBS storage size/cost ratio when you do this. This example I increased the size by 5 GBs. Click Modify when you are done.

Increase the size of the block storage.

You will then see that EBS storage volume now reflects the size you specified.

The size now reflects the new value.

Start the EC2 instance back up

You will then need to start your instance back up, so go back to Instances on the top left of the screen. Then choose Actions -> Instance State -> Start.

On a Bitnami AMI, there are startup scripts that will detect the new size on the EBS and run a script to increase your file partition size during the startup process.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Share

Ivan Windon

Ivan Windon is a Site Reliability Engineer at IBM. Ivan is actively engaged in Cloud Technologies with AWS, Google, and Azure. Ivan has extensive experience with Linux and Windows administration, DNS, Networking, IDM, and Security. In his free time, he enjoys being with his wife and two children. The family enjoys hiking, and traveling when able. His favorite locations are Yosemite NPS, and San Francisco, California.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: