Trying to Grow Datastore, No Extent Device Showing

[djoaquin]

This is my first VMWare installation so I may just be missing something.

I installed ESXi 4.0 on server with a RAID 5 SCSI array. The array had about 900 GB on it. I created the Datastore with all 900GB on it and used 600GB for my first VM. I decided I wanted more then 300GB for my second VM so I added a drive to the array and had it restripe. I want to grow my datastore to encompass the new space.

In vSphere Client I view the properties or the datastore, the Extent says 925GB. The Extent Device is listed with a Capacity of 1.36TB but the VMFS value only says 925GB. To me this indicates that it sees the space but the Extent and VMFS needs to be Increased.

The problem is when I click the Increase button, no Extent Device is shown. I have tried rebooted, rescanning the Storage Adaptor, shutting down the VM's and putting the host in Maintenance Mode but in all cases I still see no Extent Device.

I've also tried the "Add storage" option from the configuration tab. But have no options in the Disk/LUN section of the setup.

What am I missing here?

Thanks

Daniel

[Rumple]

Just to recap - the physical array volume is now a total of 1.36TB and you have a 900GB VMFS volume and need to expand the VMFS volume out to use the entire space.

Are you connected directly to the ESX host or are you using virtual center.

You should actually be able to expand it out without adding an extent as long as the physical array isn't over 2TB in size.. You only need an extent when you cross over the 2TB-512 barrier and need a larger vmfs volume.

[djoaquin]

Hello Rumple.

Yes. You have it exactly right.

I am connected directly to an ESXi host.

I just cannot figure out how to extend it out. When I select "Increase" on the datastore properties, I have no options. Should I be somehow extending the VMFS volume before doing the datastore? Or does that happen as part of the datastore Increase?

Thanks,

Daniel

[DSTAVERT]

What block size did you use for the original datastore. 4MB would only take you to 1TB.

[djoaquin]

8MB is my blocksize.

[djoaquin]

Hello Rumple,

Being that you were correct in my setup, do you have any ideas what the problem could be? Maybe you could tell me the steps I should be taking and I can see if there is anything I missed along the way.

Thanks,

Daniel

[brian1mc]

Hi Daniel,

I'm having the same problem as you. Did you manage to resolve the issue?

Regards,

Brian

[calvinrobinson]

I'm having the same exact problem. No LUNs appear in the extent device selection screen. I have available LUNs however.

[calvinrobinson]

Ok, I fixed my problem. I was trying to extend my source VMFS volume with a LUN that was already formatted. I created and selected a raw unformatted LUN and was able to create the extent.