Clarification on virtual disk usage and extending...

[davidyuz]

Hi all, I am a bit confuse on virtual disk usage and how it is extending disk space on demand.

Scenario 1:

1) First, I created a virtual disk for a Windows virtual machine with 4gig RAM and 10gig HD (thick default). Everyting works well.

2) Then I need to increase the diskspace on this virtual machine (c:\) as it is not enough.

3) I shutdown the virtual machine and change the hard disk value (Edit Settings) to 20gig HD from the VClient GUI. It took the value OK and updated the vmdk file to 20gig.

4) I started up my virtual machine, the C: drive still show 10gig. Now I have yet checked Device Manager on Windows to see if it has 10gig unpartitioned.

5) So should my steps automatic increase my C:\ drive to 20gig or I have to use partition tool to resize my partition on C:?

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Scenario 2:

1) First, I created a virtual disk for a Windows virtual machine with 4gig RAM and 10gig HD (thick default). Everyting works well.

2) Then I need to increase the diskspace on this virtual machine (c:\) as it is not enough.

3) I shutdown the virtual machine and executed the vmkfstools -X 80G command as shown below to increase it 80gig HD. It changed the vmdk file to 80gig.

/sbin/vmkfstools -X 80G "Windows 2003 Standard Server 32-.vmdk"

4) Go back to VClient console and refresh the storage of my virtual machine. It updated with 80gig.

5) From the Edit Setting | Hard Disk page, I would still see my 20gig value from the previous scenario. It did not seem to update this value.

6) Then started up Windows virtual machine and it still show 10gig on C:. But Device Manager view showed addition 70gig unpartitioned.

7) So it is how extend virtual disk work as expect? If I remember collectly, VMWARE server has another tool (don't remember) increase my C:\ drive on Windows on demand. I could be wrong. Why I can't increase my C:\ drive on-demand?

Any suggestions?

David.

[AndreTheGiant]

So should my steps automatic increase my C:\ drive to 20gig or I have to use partition tool to resize my partition on C:?

You can use Dell extpart to resize the volume.

Or (with Windows 2008/Vista and later) you can do it from disk manager

So it is how extend virtual disk work as expect?

In both cases you have to manual change the guest partition size.

OR you can use thin disk, and build a disk bigger (so the guest will see the right max size).

Then the space used on VMFS datastore will grow when the disk data grow.

Andre

[kumarsenthild]

Hi,

After Extend the Virtual in Service Console/VI client, you need to boot from third party application (e-g acronis boot, Gpartd) for expand C drive.

if you want expand D drive. no third party application require. you can you windows Diskpart

Regards

Senthil Kumar D

[VMmatty]

As others have said, you can use either DiskPart to extend the space in Windows if you are running Windows 2003 or earlier. For Windows 2008 the ability to do this is built into the operating system.

You should be able to extend the drive without taking down the server or without any downtime.

Here are two blog posts that describe both scenarios:

ExtPart:

http://blogs.kraftkennedy.com/index.php/2009/06/30/expand-virtual-machine-boot-volumes-with-no-downt...

Windows 2008

http://blogs.kraftkennedy.com/index.php/2009/09/14/expand-windows-2008-boot-volumes-with-no-downtime...