A few times a year I create a new linux VM. I usually do this by using a kickstart server. The kickstart configuration file I normally use is creating a swap partition which is to small for an Oracle database server. Unfortunately, I forget regularly how to resize the swap partition. Ok, I could update my kickstart configuration file before I create the VM, but this gets forgotten as well 
Background
I try to limit the size of my VM as good as possible. Disk space on a SSD disk is not yet as cheep as it should be. Therefore I usually create VM disk which can grow to certain limit. For the swap disk I use a 4GB VM disk and define a swap space of about 2G. The VM disk itself will not grow as long as there is not a lot of swapping. But if the VM has at least 2GB memory the Oracle installer is complaining about to low swap space. Ok, you can ignore this or you can increase the swap space.
Let’s do it
Check the current settings
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/u00 /u00 ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/u01 /u01 ext3 defaults 1 2
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
LABEL=SWAP-sdb1 swap swap defaults 0 0
Switch off the swap device
Recreate the swap partition with frisk
Command (m for help): m
Command action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)
Delete the old swap partition
Selected partition 1
Command (m for help): d
No partition is defined yet!
Select the partition type
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): l
0 Empty 1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix bf Solaris
1 FAT12 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 82 Linux swap / So c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
3 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 83 Linux c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
4 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 84 OS/2 hidden C: c7 Syrinx
5 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 85 Linux extended da Non-FS data
6 FAT16 42 SFS 86 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / .
7 HPFS/NTFS 4d QNX4.x 87 NTFS volume set de Dell Utility
8 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 88 Linux plaintext df BootIt
9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 8e Linux LVM e1 DOS access
a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 93 Amoeba e3 DOS R/O
b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 94 Amoeba BBT e4 SpeedStor
c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M 9f BSD/OS eb BeOS fs
e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a0 IBM Thinkpad hi ee EFI GPT
f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a5 FreeBSD ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a6 OpenBSD f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a7 NeXTSTEP f1 SpeedStor
12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a8 Darwin UFS f4 SpeedStor
14 Hidden FAT16 3 61 SpeedStor a9 NetBSD f2 DOS secondary
16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys ab Darwin boot fb VMware VMFS
17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fc VMware VMKCORE
18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fd Linux raid auto
1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid fe LANstep
1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX be Solaris boot ff BBT
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 1 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)
Create a new partition. I’ll use the full size of the disk /dev/sdb
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-522, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-522, default 522):
Using default value 522
Write the changes to disk and exit
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
Now it’s time to create a new swap filesystem with mkswap. Because I use labels in fstab, I create the new filesystem again with a label.
Enable the swap device again
Display the new swap info
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sdb1 partition 4192924 34324 -1
