Deleting Linux Swap Partition on KVM

This page is in reference to the fact that cloud-init KVM templates cannot have any disk partition after the root "/" partition. In many cases, the Linux swap partition is after the root partition therefore it needs to be deleted as expected by cloud-init.

The root partition is important because cloud-init can grow the partition automatically from a template clone but only if it is the last partition on a disk.

Steps

• Delete the swap line from /etc/fstab
• Run swapoff -a
• Use fdisk on the disk in question, this is usually /dev/sda fdisk /dev/sda
• Execute the following commands in fdisk:
  • p (get partition number of the Linux swap partition)
  • d (delete the swap partition by number)
  • d (delete any other system partition; there should only be 1 partition left for "/")
  • w (write the new partition table)
• Do one of the following to resize the file system to the maximum size:
  • resize2fs /dev/sdaX where X is the number of the remaining partition
  • growroot /dev/sda X where X is the number of the remaining partition
  • If cloud-init is installed with growroot support, simply reboot

Notes

• The Linux swap partition is the main focus here, but any partition located after the root "/" partition needs to be deleted for cloud-init growroot to work correctly. These steps can be adapted to any other partition type as needed.