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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

Hard drive full on VM

Here is my situation. I have a Dell t610 server running VM ware with about 4 VM's. The D drive on one of my VM's is full with no more storage space. So I added two hdds to the server and in the dell perc I created a new VD with the two drives. I go to the vsphere client and create a new data store. This may be where I screwed up. I want to increase the disk space on the d drive on my vm but how do I get the new datastore  added to my vm so I can increase the size of d drive?


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corvettefisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

You can find the virtual disk in Edit Settings after right clicking on the VM; generally you can tell by the size and just increase the size of that disk. Then use a partition editor such as gParted or if windows Disk management as seen here Resize a Partition for Free in Windows 7, 8.x, or Vista

i.e.

If you :anguished_face: drive is 80GB, right click edit settings, find the 80GB drive(usually scsi 0:1), and increase it to your desired size; then use GParted or tool of choice to resize the partition.

Additionally if you are low on your first datastore, you can shut the VM down and browse the datastore on which the VM is hosted, and select the "move" function, this will move any files or VM's to a new data store, however you will still have to increase the VMDK size on the VM.

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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

Thats what I thought but when I go to edit settings it is greyed out where you increase the disk size.

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corvettefisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is this true for when the VM is powered down as well?

You will also need to delete any snapshots on the disk BEFORE attempting to grow it.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Just to understand this correctly. You created a new datastore on the newly added disks?

To increase a virtual disk (after deleting the snapshots as mentioned by ) you need to have free disk space on the datastore on which the virtual disk is currently stored. You cannot increase a virtual disk with disk space on another datastore. What may work in this case is either to migrate the VM to the new datastore (if there's sufficient free disk space to meet the increased needs) or create an additional virtual disk for the VM on the new datastore. In case you need to increase the VM's :anguished_face: drive, an option would be to use dynamic disks. However, personally I stay away from dynamic disks whenever possible.

André

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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

I have not tried it when the vm is shut down. How do I delete the snapshots?

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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

Yes I created a new datastore with the 2 new physical disk I added to the server. So I can't increase the size of my D drive?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

>>> How do I delete the snapshots?

Basically, you will right click the VM and open the Snapshot Manager to delete snapshots. However, before you do this make sure there's sufficient free disk space on the datastore to avoit issues. How much free disk space do you currently have on the datastore? Please post a screenshot of the Datastore Browser window with a list of files in the VM's folder which shows all the files, and their sizes.

André

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

>>> So I can't increase the size of my D drive?

A virtual disk is a file on a datastore. To be able to increase it's size you need to have the free disk space on the same datastore.

André

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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

Can I delete the new datastore I created and add the two physical disk to the old datastore?

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corvettefisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If your RAID controller supports extending Volumes with the disks you have, then yes. However that question is best asked to the manufacturer of the Raid Controller; in your case most likely dell.

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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

I have over a100gb free on the existing datastore with all my VMs. I thought that by doing what I did I would be able to add to this datastore


so if I undestand correctly now I have to move a VM over to the new datastore I can't just add to it

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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

Capture.JPG

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

>>> so if I undestand correctly now I have to move a VM over to the new datastore I can't just add to it

Unfortunately that's how it is. You can create new VMs or new virtual disks on the second datastore, but you cannot increase a file across datastores. As mentioned earlier, the only option would be to use dynamic disis in Windows.

Anyway, did you already check whether one or more snapshots are present on the "old" datastore. Maybe there are some old snapshots which can be consolidated to free up disk space on the "old" datastore!?

André

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cjscol
Expert
Expert

It might not be the best solution but if you were to remove the new datastore (assuming you have nothing on it) then you could add the new VD you created across the physical two disks as an extent to the original datastore to extend it.

Not a very good idea because if you "lose" one of the VDs then you are going to lose the whole datastore!

What RAID level is the new VD?

What RAID level is the original VD?

What disk technology, size and speed are the new disks and the existing disks?  If you are mixing disk types between the two VDs then you are going to get unpredictable performance by extending the existing datastore onto the new disks.

To extend the datastore click the Increase button on the dialog box shown in the picture you posted earlier (the Datastore Properties dialog box) and select the new VD (this assumes that you have deleted the datastore that you have already created on it.

You will then be able to increase the virtual disk for the :anguished_face: drive on your VM without having to move data around.  However, see information above about this not being the best solution.

Calvin Scoltock VCP 2.5, 3.5, 4, 5 & 6 VCAP5-DCD VCAP5-DCA http://pelicanohintsandtips.wordpress.com/blog LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cscoltock
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bubbanm
Contributor
Contributor

Yes the new datastore is completely empty.

The new VD is Raid Level 1

The old VD is Raid level 5 it had 3 physical hdds on it. All the HDDs are exactly the same, the 3 old ones and the 2 new ones


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King_Robert
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

just power off the VM and edit the HDD configuration and increase the size of the HDD.

Be sure delete the snapshot before trying this otherwise the HDD edit settings will not be availble to increase.

Power on the VM and just expand the HDD if it is a windows 2008 and above version. in windows 2003 and windpws XP os you need to try the thrid party tool.

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