Best Practices to increase disk space inside a 2003 Guest while transforming Virtual Disk from Thick to Thin provisioned

[LeftTurn22]

Hello there,

I have been asked to increase disk space inside a Windows Server 2003 Guest.

The Virtual Machine Virtual Disk is a single Thick 150 GB Virtual Disk.

Maximum Virtual Disk size allowed depending on current VMFS block size is 256 GB.

I have been asked to add 20 GB to the boot disk (C:) and 80 GB to the data disk (D:) for future use only, therefore my plan is to increase the disk space as requested while transforming the Virtual Disk layout from Thick to Thin provisioned thus resulting in less SAN storage space wasted.

In the first place my intent was to shut down the Guest and perform a conversion job using VMware Converter software, but I am now wondering whether the same job can be accomplished without using VMware Converter (i.e. using advanced options from vCenter 4 "Migrate" task).

Your opininon will be much appreciated guys.

Thank you and have a great day.

Massimiliano

[Stu_McHugh]

Increating the disk space in a data drive is easy. Using the vsphere client just go into the setting of the machine and edit the size of the disk drive size. Once editted go into windows and fire up the disk manger and 'rescan diskls' and windows will notice is has a bigger drive and you can just extend it.

It's slightly tricker to extend a disk with the OS installed to it. You will need to shut down the guest and do the following

First use VMKFSTOOLS to expand the VMDK file. Putty onto the ESX box and type

1. vmkfstool - X 10g servername.vmdk

This will expand the file to 10gig. note. the X has to be uppercase and the vmdk should not be the one that ends with '-flat'.

Mount something like BartPE to the virtual machine and boot from

it. Once loaded open and command prompt and type the following:

2. diskpart

3. list volume (note the number of the volume you want to expand)

4. select volume x (x = the volume number)

5. extend

6. exit

Stuart

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[LeftTurn22]

Hello Stuart,

thank you for your reply.

What about disk layout from Thick to Thin provisioned ?

Thank you and have a great day.

Regards,

Massimiliano

[jkumhar75]

It desn't matter wheather it it thick disk or thin disk.Since the entire disk will be extended with the extend command and it will reserve the disk space for that.

Jay

VCP 310, VCP 410,MCSE

[Stu_McHugh]

Once you have resized your disks use the 'migrate' feature in vsphere client and migrate your storage. It is a little miss leeding but when you migrate the storage just choose the same storage as it currently sits on and then the next screen you will be able to change the disk from thick to thin.

Hope that helps.

Stuart

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Please award points to any useful answer.

[LeftTurn22]

Hello Stuart,

thank you for your further reply.

I have marked it as helpful.

Have e great day.

Massimiliano