Error Message: Could not power on VM: No space left on device.

[Ranger_rkm]

Hello,

I'm new to ESX and I increased the VM memory from 2048 to 1856 GB of memory. What I do not understand is where is this space at and how do I know what I currently have and / or using.

Thanks,

-Mike

[Ranger_rkm]

I might have found something related to my problem. swap space.

So if it has to do with the LUN space. Then this is what I did.

I created a HD with 40.02GB

The LUN currently has 44.75GB Used and 4.22GB Free

Is this the space it is refering to or something else.

So if this is correct then how do you go about spacing this out correctly.

Thanks,

-Mike

[ThompsG]

Morning Mike,

I will try to answer you question but please forgive me if I make some wrong assumptions.

There are two main components to a virtual machine that take space of the VMFS datastore. The first is obvious which is the VMDK (virtual disk). By default if you create say a 20GB drive attached to your virtual machine then 20GB is consumed from the datastore that the VM resides on. The second component is the swap file for the VM. By default this is equal to the size of the memory allocated to your VM. So lets say your VM has 4GB of memory, when this VM is powered on a 4GB file is created on the datastore where the VM resides.

This swap file behaviour can be modified so that the swap files is not created in the same location as the VM if you are out of space on the datastore you are trying to start this VM from, however I would recommend not modifying the default behaviour if it can be avoided. Probably not the case for you in this situation.

Kind regards,

Glen

[ThompsG · Accepted solution]

Morning Mike,

Ooops missed the second part. What we normally do is to allow for all the VMs to be powered on with their current memory allocations (so VMDKS + swap), and then allow for 20-30G for growth. This could be extra memory, expanding disks or Storage VMotions.

Kind regards,

Glen

[Ranger_rkm]

Thanks for the information it makes sense.

Would you know how to re size a datastore. I know how to re config my

San luns. But I do not know how to re size the datastore in esx, so

that I can increase this disk space.

- Troy

On Jul 27, 2009, at 5:15 PM, ThompsG <communities-emailer@vmware.com

[kjb007]

In ESX 3.5, you can not resize a datastore. You can either delete and re-create your datastore with an increased LUN underneath, or you can add an additional LUN, edit your datastore, and add an extent. That is the only way to make your datastore larger in 3.5. With vSphere 4, you can grow your datastore, but that functionality does not exist in 3.x

-KjB

VMware vExpert