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DennieTidwell
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ESX3.5U4/VC2.5 - move vmdk to adequate datastore and extend disk on vm

ESX3.5U4/VC2.5 - move vmdk to adequate datastore and extend disk on vm

Goal: move vmdk to datastore with adequate storage and then increase 😧 storage from 20G to 100G

Converter is not available on this architecture. I can cold migrate vm to different datastore, no prob.

Question: Without use of Converter, can method 3 be used without a secondary vm? In other words, by just using target vm offline, online, offline? Or is this a disk signature/OS problem on Windows vm?

I need to move vmdk to different LUN and extend windows vm disk on 😧 (non-OS drive). Can this be done via single procedure? Options?

To use Method 3 at http://communities.vmware.com/thread/81121 requires available "secondary" vm I don't have.

Method 3 ? Using vmkfstools and another Windows virtual machine to extend a disk

o Shutdown the virtual machine you want to resize

o Log into the ESX Server console via Putty

o Type ?vmkfstools ?X <new disk size> /vmfs/volumes/<storage volume name>/<virtual server name>/<virtual disk name>? ie. /vmfs/volumes/Storage1/my_vm.vmdk New disk size can be specified in kilo, mega or gigabytes and will be the total size of the new disk. So if you want to increase a virtual disk from 20GB to 24GB you would specify either 24000m or 24g

o Shutdown the second helper virtual machine

o Edit the settings of the second VM and add the hard disk from the first VM

o Power on the second VM and load the Disk Management snap-in and verify that the disk from the first VM has un-allocated space on it

o Select Start, Run and enter diskpart.exe

o The command ?list volume? will show you all volumes.

o Select your volume based on the results of the list volume command, ie. ?select volume 1?

o Type the command ?extend? to extend the volume

o Check the Disk Management snap-in again and the volume should be extended with a larger capacity

o Shutdown the second VM and remove (not delete) the disk from it

o Power on your first VM and the new space should be there and ready to use.

Also, I am already aware of Dell extpar:

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=1310

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R64398&forma...

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Troy_Clavell
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for VI3, storage vmoiton is done through the RCLI or a 3rd party plugin

I prefer the plugin

http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/vmotion-drs-high-availabil...

Also, if the option to increase the disk size in the VIC is greyed out, it sounds like a permissions issue. Finally, you cannot extend the disk using the VIC if the guest in question has a snapshot.

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weinstein5
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Are you licensed for vMotion? If you are then you can take advantage of Storage vMotion -

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
DennieTidwell
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ESX3.5U4/VC2.5 - vm version 4 - licensed for vMotion - I am full admin on VC - vmdk is not marked as independent/persistent

When edit settings tab is viewed, the disk increase size option is greyed out preventing change to size on powered up or powered down vm

Migration doesn't present any change disk size options. vStorage is not shown in licensing tab but vMotion is licensed.

Should this option be available? What might prevent this option being available?

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Troy_Clavell
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for VI3, storage vmoiton is done through the RCLI or a 3rd party plugin

I prefer the plugin

http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/vmotion-drs-high-availabil...

Also, if the option to increase the disk size in the VIC is greyed out, it sounds like a permissions issue. Finally, you cannot extend the disk using the VIC if the guest in question has a snapshot.

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DennieTidwell
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I appreciate the responses. Thank you. Points awarded ... one helpful still remains ... so next reply gets it.

It seems that this option is only available when connected directly to the host via VI client, not from the vCenter interface. Can anyone confirm this? The option was available and I was able to complete the work via directly connecting to the host, changing disk size in vm's edit settings tab and then using diskpart in Windows OS (all this with vm live).

I am still curious whether the Dell ExtPart works as Mr. Siebert and Mr. Laverick suggest ... but I don't have a good test environment.

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Troy_Clavell
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if the option is greyed out when trying to extend the HDD while logged into vCenter, but not connected directly to the ESX Host, then i'm pretty confident it's a permissions issue in vCenter.

As for extpart, it's a great tool and works very well in our environment. I don't know what guest OS you are trying to increase the space on, but if it's a windows guest, you really only need extpart for c: drives. Any other volume besides the system volume can be expanded live just using diskpart