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10 Replies Last post: Oct 6, 2009 10:53 AM by jamieorth  

Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB. posted: Mar 29, 2009 5:35 AM

Click to view svaradha's profile Enthusiast
svaradha
28 posts since
Apr 2, 2007
I'm trying to resize (increase) a disk to a bigger volume. But it doesn't get bigger than 1TB. The blocksize is also the biggest one, 8m.

Any ideas?







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Regards,
-Satheesh-

Tags: increase, resize, blocksize

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

1. Mar 29, 2009 5:49 AM in response to: svaradha
Click to view tom howarth's profile Guru User Moderators vExpert
tom howarth
7,456 posts since
Jul 25, 2005

How are you trying to do this??

Have you got the space in the VMFS partition to do this increase?


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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: www.planetvm.net
Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

2. Mar 29, 2009 5:53 AM in response to: tom howarth
Click to view svaradha's profile Enthusiast
svaradha
28 posts since
Apr 2, 2007
I'm doing this from VC. It says that the maximum disk size can be 1998mb - that's the free space on the disk.
So it says that I'm allowed, but it just doesn't comit the change....






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Regards,
-Satheesh-

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

3. Mar 29, 2009 7:14 AM in response to: svaradha
Click to view thehyperadvisor's profile Enthusiast
thehyperadvis…
49 posts since
Sep 18, 2008

From VC you can only extend datastores by adding extents and spanning across them. Effectively resizing the datastore. If you trying to extend a vmdk, that is done from the console using vmkfstools. Also the number you typed for "maximum disk size" is only 2GB, far from 2TB. Was that just a typo?

And just to clearify are you trying to increase the datastore or a vmdk file?


hope this helps - thehyperadvisor.com

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Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

4. Mar 29, 2009 7:22 AM in response to: thehyperadvis…
Click to view IamTHEvilONE's profile Virtuoso VMware Employees vExpert
IamTHEvilONE
1,585 posts since
Apr 1, 2008
if the VI Client is using VMKFSTOOLS to extend the disk, then you may require the disk space for the original and new disk sizes temporarily.

because it clones the volume into a new vmdk size. so if you have a 750 gb file, and want to make it 1.5 tb ... you'll need 2.25 tb during the process. the VI Client doesn't error out on something like this. the reconfig may fail, but no error is given.

try making a new smaller vm, then extend the disk just to confirm it works fine on that lun.

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

5. Mar 29, 2009 7:42 AM in response to: svaradha
Click to view depping's profile Champion VMware Employees User Moderators
depping
3,207 posts since
Jan 17, 2005
Are we talking VMDK or VMFS? in case of VMDK you will also need to resize the volume within the VMDK via the VM OS.

Duncan
VMware Communities User Moderator

Blogging: http://www.yellow-bricks.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/depping

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Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

6. Mar 29, 2009 11:01 AM in response to: IamTHEvilONE
Click to view svaradha's profile Enthusiast
svaradha
28 posts since
Apr 2, 2007
IamTHEvilONE: This is something I didn't know. That probably explains it. I only got 800GB of free space, so extending the 1TB to 1.8TB would not work according to your information...







If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" answers/replies. :)

Regards,
-Satheesh-

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

7. Mar 29, 2009 1:43 PM in response to: svaradha
Click to view IamTHEvilONE's profile Virtuoso VMware Employees vExpert
IamTHEvilONE
1,585 posts since
Apr 1, 2008
i had talked to someone earlier this week attempting to go from 1000 gb to 1.5 tb on a 2 tb lun.

totally not enough free space to do this.

but the 100 gb -> 200 gb for the C:\ vmdk worked okay since he had 600 gb free. he also didn't have a LUN that was large enough to support the operation since they were all native 2 TB splits.

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

8. Mar 29, 2009 11:16 PM in response to: IamTHEvilONE
Click to view tom howarth's profile Guru User Moderators vExpert
tom howarth
7,456 posts since
Jul 25, 2005
you do require the disk space temporally, as it is in effect an enhanced copy and keeps the old file there for fall back purposes until completion. if you need to expand I would provision a new LUN and create the larger VMDK and then migrate the file system.

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: www.planetvm.net
Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

9. Oct 2, 2009 7:32 AM in response to: tom howarth
Click to view jamieorth's profile Expert
jamieorth
552 posts since
Apr 28, 2005

I would like to ask a question in regards to this thread - I have a similar issue:

I have a LUN (A) that was 782GB in size. This was formatted as a VMFS datastore. One VM on this datastore with a 730GB vmdk file. This file has been expanded several times as the data on the VM grew. Just yesterday I expanded it to the 730 from 700.

I have a LUN (B) that was 510GB in size. I added this LUN as an extent to Datastore containing LUN (A) making datastore 1.26TB. I now need to expand the vmdk to 1.2TB but it will not allow this. Is this due to a free space factor as discussed above?

Was I able to expand from 700 to 730 becuase there was an additional 30GB free? If that is the case can I expand the vmdk say to 1TB (or just under becuase there would be enough free space?) and then continue to expand it a small chunck at a time?

Regards...

Jamie
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Re: Increase disk size? Cannot get bigger than 1TB.

10. Oct 6, 2009 10:53 AM in response to: jamieorth
Click to view jamieorth's profile Expert
jamieorth
552 posts since
Apr 28, 2005
Don't know if you already had solved your issue but there is a known issue where you cannot extend the size of the vmdk larger than 1023Gb while the VM is running (so with the VI Client). However you should be able to use vmkfstools while the vm is off according to vmware. Also, this bug is supposed to be fixed in some upcoming patches for 3.5.

Regards...

Jamie
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Remember, if it's not one thing, it's your mother...

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