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JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

Can I delete this datastore and extend the other ?

I would like to delete the 'VMware OS' datastore  and use that space to increase the 'MainStorage' datastore as the VM is running out of space on that one. Is that possible.

Complete newbie to ESX so unsure if it can be done without wiping out the box :slightly_smiling_face:

Version is 4.0.0

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JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

Anyone!

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abhilashhb
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

If this is a datastore that is not used by any VM you can delete it. It says "VMware OS". Is this the disk where ESXi is installed?

Abhilash B
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhilashhb/

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JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

Theres nothing on that datastore but I was unsure if it contains the ESX OS - does the default datastore contain the OS ?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

I don't think this will work. Even if you were able to extend the second datastore with this space, you'd run an unsupported configuration (e.g. different RAID sets, different disk speed, ...). Don't you have VMs which you can migrate the smaller datastore to free up disk save on the larger one?

André

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JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately not. There is only 1 VM on it, a large F&P server which is running out of space - I was hoping to use that smaller datastore to increase the larger one.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

What type of disks (size, speed, SAS/SATA) and how many disks do you have in the host?

What might be an option - depending on how you are presenting the shares to the clients - is to add a second virtual disk to the VM and move some of the data to this virtual disk (e.g. user homedirs, ...)!?

André

JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

It has 8 SAS disks in it.

2x146GB and 6x300GB disks

I am guessing the first 2 are mirrored and this is the 'VMware OS' datastore.

The other datastore must be the other 6 disks mirrored as well then! I would need to down the server and run HP array config tool to see how its setup. Is it possible to install HP tools in ESX ?

Thanks

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

HP provides Offline bundles which can be installed, and even customized ESXi installation images for several ESXi versions (see Customize VMware ESXi Images for HP ProLiant Servers). If you do have the HP customized version installed, you may be able to see the RAID configuration in the host's "Health Status" in the Configuration tab. If it's not installed I wouldn't bother with installing it, since it will require a reboot anyway.

According to the disk sizes you mentioned and the datastore size, the RAID may either be setup as a RAID10 (no hot spare), RAID5 (two hot spares), or RAID6 (one hot spare). Due to SmartArray licensing requirements for RAID6, I'd rule this out and a RAID5 with two hot spares also doesn't make much sense in my opinion. So it's most likely a RAID10.

Assuming this is a HP DL380 G5 host with a P400 controller, you basically have two options, depending on whether you have BBWC enabled:

  • without BBWC: backup the VM, recreate the RAID (a RAID5 set with 5 disks + 1 host spare, would give you approximatly 1,100 GB), then restore the VM
  • with BBWC: backup the VM, then use e.g. the ACU (Array Configuration Utility) on the SmartStart CD to migrate the RAID level from RAID10 to RAID5.

André

JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

Great, thanks for your time and help. Appreciate it. You've gave me a couple of things to think about. Smiley Happy

Joe.

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JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

On further reading of this it states that Migration will take about 15 minutes per GB. If this is the case that ESX has to be offline then this would probably be too long a period of time. Can this be done online ?

Or would the quicker option juts backup the VM to local box, recreate the RAID and restore VM?

Its a DL380G6 with P410i controller

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

I never had to convert a RAID set myself yet, so I can't tell you exactly how and whether it will work. In any case I'd strongly recommend that you backup the VM prior to converting or recreating the RAID set. Since you are using ESXi 4.0 you may want to read VMware Front Experience: How to run the HP Online ACU CLI for Linux in ESXi 4.x for instructions on how to online convert the RAID set with a workaround.

Personally I'd probably backup the VM, delete the datastore, recreate the RAID, create a new datstore and finally restore the VM. However, you may - after the backup - try the workaround and if it doesn't work, you can still re-create the RADI and restore the VM.

Whatever you are going to do, I'd be interested in a short feedback.

André

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JoeFaeGlesga
Contributor
Contributor

OK, will give that a try - thanks. One last question and its a newbie question. What would be the best way to back it up (while online if possible) - is it just a matter of uploading the VM folder on that datastore  in the ESX vsphere console ?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Downloading the files for backup and uploading them to restore would be an option, unless the VM uses thin provisioned virtual disks. However, this can only be done with the VM powered off, i.e. the files not being locked. I'd rather use a backup tool to do the job. Depending on whether you are using the free Hypervisor or a paid edition of ESXi, you can use one of the free tools (e.g. VeeamZIP) provided by some backup application vendors (in case you don't already have backup in place). For the free Hypervisor you may want to take a look at e.g. VM Explorer Editions - Free/Pro. If you are going to run the backup with the VM powered on, keep in mind that you will loose some data in case you are going to restore the VM later on.

André

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