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Linux operating system issue

How do I resolve the issue where the ext4 file system of a GPT partition cannot exceed 16 TiB when I resize the file system with resize2fs in Ubuntu 16.04?

Problem description

After I expand the data volume of an instance running Ubuntu 16.04, the following error occurs when I use the resize2fs tool to expand the ext4 file system of its GPT partition to more than 16 TiB.

Causes

This issue arises because the built-in resize2fs tool in the Ubuntu 16.04 operating system is outdated. It does not support operations on file systems larger than 16 TiB.

Solutions

You need to upgrade the resize2fs tool to a version not lower than 1.43.0.

You can download the resize2fs source code (version 1.43.0 or later) from the SOURCEFORGE website and upload the file to the target instance.

In the example provided in this topic, version 1.47.1 is downloaded.

In the directory where the e2fsprogs file is located, execute the following command to decompress the file.

tar -zxvf e2fsprogs-1.47.1.tar.gz

Execute the following command to enter the e2fsprogs directory.

cd e2fsprogs-1.47.1/

tip

Replace e2fsprogs-1.47.1 with the actual directory name.

Execute the following command to generate the Makefile.

./configure

After you complete the previous compilation, compile the e2fsprogs source code and install the new version of the resize2fs tool.

make && make install

Execute the following command to view the version of the resize2fs tool.

resize2fs version

Sample output:

If the following output is displayed, version 1.47.1 of the resize2fs tool is installed as expected.

Execute the following command to convert the file system to 64-bit format.

resize2fs -b /dev/vdb1

tip

Replace /dev/vdb1 with the actual partition to be expanded.

Sample output:

Execute the following command to expand the file system.

resize2fs /dev/vdb1

tip

Replace /dev/vdb1 with the actual partition to be expanded.

Last updated: 2025.11.11 11:40:19