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riwec
Contributor
Contributor

Unable to expand disk on ESXi 6.5 while machines are running

Hello,

at first I want to say sorry for my bad English. I hope I am able to express my problem understandable.

I have seen a lot of ESX hosts, most of them are ESX 5, 5.5 and 6. Nowhere it is a problem to increase disk capacity while the VM(s) is/are running, when there is no snapshot.

Now here are two ESXi 6.5 without the possibility to expand disks when the VM is turned on. We are using a SCSI Controller and no, there are no snapshots. To be sure there is nothing I created a snapshot for every virtual machine and deleted it again.

Even when I create a new SCSI oder SATA Controller and using a new disk I am unable to increase the size without turning off the machine.

When the machine is turned off I am able to do what I want.

The disks are provided by thin provisioning. Reinstalling the VMWare tools did not help.

The size is simply grayed out like we know it from machines/hosts with existing snapshots. I am sure there is a simple error. Are you able to help me?

I would be very grateful.


Thank you very much.Have a nice weekend!

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12 Replies
daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Before further troubleshooting, please update your host client from the version posted on the Fling site here.

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bhards4
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

Well its basically happens when you have snapshot created on Virtual machine. Sometime snapshot manager wont show the actual status of the snapshot.

To be sure, you can either browse the datastore where the VM is located to see if you have any drives which states of 0000.vmdk. , if yes, then create an another snapshot and then perform delete all option or consolidate the snapshot.

once the snapshot's are deleted then you are good to go to extend the HDD you would like to.

-Sachin

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vijayrana968
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Check manually in the individual VM folder if any snapshot reside there, sometimes it won't display in snapshots but files are still there.

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

Expand the virtual disk, to check it's name... if contains 0000something, than there is a snap

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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riwec
Contributor
Contributor

No, there is no snapshot, I attached a picture of the datastore. The SAS store is used by only one disk of one machine.

There are four VMs and I am not able to expand only one of it.

And the machines are about two weeks old. Before I did to test there were no snapshots I am absolutely sure.

@daphnissov: The ESXi was installed about two weeks ago. So I think it is not as old as you might think. It was the latest version. Without technical previews ...

Thanks a lot!

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Tech0Addict
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Try to unregister the VM from your inventory ,

if that wont help, try remove (without dekete) the vmdk and add as a new existing and point to the vmdks you have removed.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

My point is there is a newer version of the host client available here and before attempting to troubleshoot further, you should update your version in case this was an addressed issue.

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riwec
Contributor
Contributor

No, sorry. It does not solve the problems. I unregistered the VMs and have removed the drives, no success.

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hussainbte
Expert
Expert

This hot-add option should of course be available but just..

could you shutdown the machine for once and put this advanced configuration of the vm.

devices.hotplug = "true"

If you found my answers useful please consider marking them as Correct OR Helpful Regards, Hussain https://virtualcubes.wordpress.com/
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riwec
Contributor
Contributor

devices.hotplug was not present in the .vmx. Now it is but unfortunately it is not able to solve my problem.

Edit: No more ideas? It has to be a fundamental mistake (of us I guess) because it happens with three different ESXi hosts in three different networks.

Thanks!

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nitvat
Contributor
Contributor

Does any of the idea contributed to the solution. Using the different port groups can be reason for this?

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nitvat
Contributor
Contributor

However, was able to increase the disk after powering down the server. Still, I do not see any restriction that can limit to increase drive size if it is connected to SATA Controller.

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