I have an ESXi-5.5 with a 500GB HDD datastore and a 220GB SSD datastore. Both standalone drives.
I would like to upgrade the 500GB HDD with a new 4TB drive. What is the best way to accomplish this?
If you have free port for installing new hard disk, you can install 4TB device and migrate your machines to the new disk, you need to vCenter on this regard.
You should export your machine as OVF/OVA file and import it to the new disk, if you don't have vCenter.
Make sure you read Support statement for 512e and 4K Native drives for VMware vSphere and VSAN (2091600) | VMware KB prior to purchasing/replacing the drive.
André
maybe other way to go is backup everything from ESXi server with backup tool (for exmaple veeam backup and replication)
upgrade your server with new hard disk.
restore everything to new hard disk.
with regards