I have the solution to my problem . To save others the hassle here goes:
Create the new partition and filesystem.
Mount it somewhere.
Stop mysql
Copy the entire contents of
/var/lib/mysql
to the new location.
sudo cp -R -p /var/lib/mysql /opt/san_data/
sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /opt/san_data/
Delete /var/lib/mysql
Create a symlink from /var/lib/mysql to the new directory. For example:
use a symbolic link, remove the old /var/lib/mysql directory and run the following.
Use the Percona Configuration Wizzard to get the values for your my.cnf file
https://tools.percona.com/wizard
Edit the my,cnf file
sudo nano /etc/my.cnf
Set the data storage datadir as follows:
DATA STORAGE
datadir = /opt/san_data/mysql
I then had to reset the root users password for server lxtusynx01 :
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password Mypassword*******
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h lxtusynx01 password Mypassword*********
Now the database works