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firstamb
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256GB limit

I know this has been answered before, and I have read a few post's about this. However I am not fully understanding what I need to do to increase the size to 500gb limit. As of now, I believe that I need to move all the VM machines off the ESXi and have a blank slate, next I am lost. I would welcome any help or links that can be provided. Thank you.

Oscar

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a_p_
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Select your host in the vSphere Client's inventory, click the "Configuration" Tab and go to "Storage". There you can select the datastore you want to delete and you also have the option to create a new one.

Whichever method you choose, any data on that datastore will be destroyed!

André

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a_p_
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The maximum possible virtual disk size depends on the block size which you have to choose when creating a VMFS datastore. By default the first VMFS datastore is created with a block size of 1 MB which limits the virtual disks to ~256GB. For possible block sizes and the max. virtual disk sizes take a look at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012384

Make sure you read the part about being able to create snapshots in this article.

What you need to do to modify the block size is basically to format the VMFS datastore. Therefore you need to evacuate the datastore (backup/relocate the VM's), delete the datastore and re-create it again selecting the desired block size.

André

firstamb
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"I just recently needed to change the block size of my ESXi installation so that I could utilize a larger-sized virtual machine. Since the bulk of a virtual machine is stored as a single file, the block-size imposes limitations on how big the machine can be, as follows:

Block Size / Max VM Size

1 / 256 GB

2 / 512 GB

4 / 1024 GB

8 / 2048 GB

With ESXi you cannot change this during the install, but you can create a new volume afterwards to replace the datastore that is made with installation.

*************************************************************************************************************************

                        • CAUTION: following the steps below WILL remove all data in the existing datastore. *******

*************************************************************************************************************************

First, log into your VMware Infrastructure client. Highlight the virtual host from the left pane (should be the only thing there, since this is a fresh install). Go to the configuration tab, and select "Storage" under the Hardware heading. To the right you will see your datastore, and a column labelled "device." Record the data from this column (mine was vmhba1:0:0:3). You will need this later.

1) At the VMware console (where you see the machine's IP) press Alt - F1 to get to a new console window with some log information.

2) Type "unsupported" (no quotes) and hit enter. You will not see the characters as you type them

3) Enter the "root" password -- you are now at a commandline

4) enter the following command: vmkfstools --createfs vmfs3 --blocksize 8M vmhba1:0:0:3

Replace the blocksize parameter with whatever you need (I used 2M, to get virtual machines up to 500ish gigs). Replace the vmhba1:0:0:3 with the name that you recorded earlier. All set!"

I will be trying this tomorrow morning, and post my results.

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a_p_
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With ESXi, you can do this in the GUI/the vSphere Client. You don't need to run the commands on the CLI.

André

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firstamb
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Ok, I must be looking in the wrong spot, or am in the wrong spot all together. Where are those options located at?

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a_p_
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Select your host in the vSphere Client's inventory, click the "Configuration" Tab and go to "Storage". There you can select the datastore you want to delete and you also have the option to create a new one.

Whichever method you choose, any data on that datastore will be destroyed!

André

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firstamb
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Andre, does it matter if the data store is the local disk? Or is it supposed to be the local disk? Because it is the local disk I need to change the block size on Smiley Happy Thanks for all your help in advance!

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a_p_
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This works for local disks as well as SAN/NAS LUNs...

With ESXi you can even delete the first datastore, which is usually created with the installation on the same disk. If this is your only datastore you will receive a message telling you that there is no datastore. This message will disappear after you have recreated the datastore with the block size you need.

André

BTW: Not sure from where you post your messages, however they include your telephone number!!!

firstamb
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Outstanding. Andre I think you will make me look very good at work. Thanks a million, I will report back with my results.

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