Extending C Drive on Server

[vipes27]

We upgraded to 5.5 a while back and I wanted to double check something before actually doing it, as I have not attempted it in this version yet. We have a Server 2008 R2 vm that I would like to extend the C drive of. We're doing some updates to the software that resides on the server and there will be a duplicate database for testing purposes on the same drive. Can I just go into the settings of the vm and change the provisioned sized from 40 to 50GB?

Thanks.

[jrmunday · Accepted solution]

That's the first of two steps required. Once the disk has been extended from 40 to 50GB, logon to the Windows 2008 R2 server, open disk manager (may require a rescan), then simply select the C:\ and extend this.

The process will be identical across the various vSphere versions, so being on 5.5 now doesn't change anything.

Cheers,

Jon

[vipes27]

Thank you, Jon. One other question. Do I need to do this during downtime or will extending the drive be done in real time? Only wondering because is the C drive.

[BenLiebowitz]

Also, you won't be able to modify the size of the disk if you have any snapshots stored with the VM. 

Just an FYI.

[jrmunday]

This can be done online without any downtime. Pre Windows 2008 there were limitations extending drives that contained pagefiles or were system drives, but this headache is resolved with Windows 2008 and above. For any Windows 2003 servers that you need to extend online, just download the Dell extpart tool which can take care of this via the command line.

Cheers,

Jon

[vipes27]

Perfect! Worked like a charm. Thanks for the help.