If you clone your VPS to a server with a larger disk, or something goes wrong when expanding your available disk space you may have a situation where your root partition on /dev/vda1 is not taking up all the space available.

For example, here we have a root partition of 10G  on a 30G disk  (commands entered are shown starting with #, notable parts in bold):

# df -Th /
Filesystem     Type  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1      ext4  9.7G  2.6G  7.1G  27% /

# fdisk -l /dev/vda | head -1
Disk /dev/vda: 30 GiB, 32212254720 bytes, 62914560 sectors

To expand /dev/vda1 so that it takes up the full 30G available, there are three steps to take:

1. Take a backup.  While always a good idea, editing the partition table incorrectly will mess up the disk.
2. Modify the partition table so that /dev/vda1 is 30G in size
3. Resize the ext3/ext4 partition so that it takes up the new, full size of /dev/vda1

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Disclaimer

Many thanks to the people whose hard work as brought us WordPress, the Pinbin responsive theme and the Masonry javascript framework.

Symptoms

I have a WordPress 4.7.1 website.  The website uses the Pinbin responsive theme.  The responsive component is based on the Masonry javascript library.  Masonry stacks individual articles in a grid style layout; the articles are automatically rearranged when the internet browser window is resized.  The result is a pleasing layout where page content is arranged automatically to suit both large screen devices and small screen devices.

WordPress will normally display articles sorted by Publishing date.  The most recent articles will be displayed first.  Using the Pinbin responsive theme based on Masonry, the problem is that the articles appear ‘shuffled’.  The order of the articles appears to be random at first (which is not the case).

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Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver2014express.aspx

Microsoft offers the following Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express components for download:

• LocalDB (SqlLocalDB)
  • LocalDB is a lightweight version of Express that has all its programmability features, yet runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation and short list of pre-requisites. Use this if you need a simple way to create and work with databases from code. It can be bundled with Application and Database Development tools like Visual Studio or embedded with an application that needs local databases.

Benefits

Small installer (20MB+)
Simplified. It does do not require configuration or administration.
Run as a low privileged user.
Simple installation.
Offers the same T-SQL language as SQL Server Express. It supports stored procedures,  geometry and geography data types, triggers, views.
LocalDB uses the same sqlservr.exe as other editions of SQL Server and the same client-side providers.
LocalDB doesn’t create any database services; LocalDB processes are started and stopped automatically when needed.
Unlimited local connections.
It is the default development database for SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).
You can create instances of LocalDB programmatically using LocalDBCreateInstance or using system.data.localdb.
LocalDB supports named instances.

Limitations

Allows only local connections(!)
Only Named Pipes connections(!)
Limited to use one CPU.
It supports ADO.NET but does not support ADO.
The system databases, SQL Server error logs,  are stored in the AppData folder in the user profile.

• Express (SQLEXPR)
  • Express edition includes the SQL Server database engine only. Best suited to accept remote connections or administer remotely.

• Express with Tools (SQLEXPRWT)
  • This package contains everything needed to install and configure SQL Server as a database server including the full version of SQL Server 2014 Management Studio. Choose either LocalDB or Express depending on your needs above.

• SQL Server Management Studio Express (SQLManagementStudio)
  • This does not contain the database, but only the tools to manage SQL Server instances, including LocalDB, SQL Express, SQL Azure, full version of SQL Server 2014 Management Studio, etc. Use this if you already have the database and only need the management tools.

• Express with Advanced Services (SQLEXPRADV)
  • This package contains all the components of SQL Server Express including the full version of SQL Server 2014 Management Studio. This is a larger download than “with Tools,” as it also includes both Full Text Search and Reporting Services.

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