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mtechnical1
Contributor
Contributor

Expand RAID5 store in ESX 3.5

Hi,

I have a Dell PE2950 with 4 * 146 SAS drives in RAID 5 - I need to add another drive and expand the RAID5 to give me extra space on MS Server 2003. Is it possible to add the drive, expand the RAID5 to include the extra 146GB and then use it within the ESX console to add it to the VM?

The VM has currently a 250GB drive - the option is to increase this to 256GB. Is this a maximum of ESXi? If so, can I add the extra space as another drive on the MS Server?

Thanks,

Daniel.

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

The max size is 2TB.

But if you expand your RAID configuration (at controller level) you only will see some "free space".

You must have a free primary partition to create a new VMFS datastore (or extent the existing one), and in some disk partition layout there isn't.

Have a look at fdisk -l output.

PS: I suggest (if possible) to create a NEW virtual disk on the controller (in the same expanded RAID group), then use this new disk for a new datastore or for extent the existing one.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

The 256 GB is due to Block sized used for the VMFS datastore - 1 MB is the default block size which limits the max file size to 256 GB - you can not dynamically increae the block size you will have create a new VMFS datastore with a larger block size - 2 MB - is 512 GB to 8 MB has a limit of 2048 GB -

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mtechnical1
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the feedbacks guys. I have been advised that I can add the additional drive as a seperate RAID1 and will then be able to access it in the VM Server 2003 under a different drive letter. This will get me around the 256GB limit. Would you agree and can you point me to where I can add it in the VM console?

Very much appreciated!

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

A single drive does not offer any drive failure protection. You would be farther ahead to move your VMs off the array and recreate the array and move the VMs back.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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