Cannot resize disk

[joshrock11]

I have several boxes (Windows XP and UNIX) that I'm able to resize the disks for but whenever I try and resize a disk provisioning for my Windows 2003 servers it is grey and unable to be changed. What is the reasoning for this and how can I change it without using the VMware converter again.

[srinivasvivek]

Can you post a screenshot here? Is that you cant change from VM settings?

[joshrock11]

[srinivasvivek]

I think you have a snaphot for the VM. You need to delete it before extending the disk.

Delete all snapshot. Extend. Then create snapshot again

Please mark if the answer is useful

[joshrock11]

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a snapshot?

[srinivasvivek]

Your snapshots will get invalidated if you extend the disk after taking snapshots. Your snapshot depends on your virtual disk state. You can work around the limitation but your snapshots will be unusable

http://vmprofessional.com/index.php?content=2k3resize

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=994

[NTurnbull]

Simplistic overview: When you create a snapshot of a virtual disk (.vmdk) essentially the disk becomes read only (hence why it can be used for VCB) even though the vm continues running, when the vm needs to update only the deltas - pointers to a block/byte of the disk - are stored in another file. Think of a disk as a finite grid and the deltas point to a single block inside that grid, when a change occurs to the disk, the delta needs to have information to know where that exact block is. Now if you go and extend the disk the co-ordinate details in the delta are out then you've got a bit of a problem. Hence why you can't extend a disk with a snapshot.

Thanks,

Neil