unable to use space why ?

[TECH198]

When installing ESXi 7 in Fusion, it created a 142Gig disk.. However the data-size it too small for me at only 13Gig, and in order to get more space i need to add aditional drive... ESxi install would take 8Gig or so i'm guessing which would leave around 130Gig for datastore.. So why can't i grow it into freespace on system disk?

When i try and "expand" in ESXi it says "No free space available"  The size of the datastotre is only 13 Gig from ESXi.. so i should i able to use the at least 100Gig on system disk.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

The requirements changed quite a bit with ESXi 7.0, and a default installation will consume up to ~138 GB disk space for the Hypervisor.
With ESXi 7.0 Update 1c, VMware introduced an installer boot option "systemMediaSize" (see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/81166) which allows you to reduce that size.

Since you are installing ESXi as a VM in Fusion, you may either use the mentioned boot option, or simply create two virtual disks, one for ESXi (e.g. 32GB), and a second one for a VMFS datastore.

André

[TECH198]

Why so large though ?

The article in question seems good but it looks like in both cases it must be done pre-install (from boot media) not after install ?

In my case, it may just be better to add 2nd virtual disk,,

[a_p_]

>>> Why so large though ?
I can't tell you the exact reason. However, I assume that it is related to many things, like hosts with much more RAM as 10 years ago, more logs, and maybe some space reserved for future features.

>>> The article in question seems good but it looks like in both cases it must be done pre-install (from boot media) not after install ?
Correct.

>>> In my case, it may just be better to add 2nd virtual disk,,
Agreed. At least it's much easier.

André