Change disks esx3.5

[dagkl]

I have ran out of space on the disk where my vms are. Planning on shutting down the vms, copy them out with fastscp, change disks, and copy back in again. First obstacle was, what shall I copy? Files are located both in the folder vmstore and a folder named 4884d565-be3ed5c9-9b75-001e8c4cc1cd. Both these folder are located under the folder vmfs/volumes.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

When I have changed disks and copied the files back into the ESX, is there something more I should do?

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

Hello.

First obstacle was, what shall I copy? Files are located both in the folder vmstore and a folder named 4884d565-be3ed5c9-9b75-001e8c4cc1cd. Both these folder are located under the folder vmfs/volumes.

The "friendly name" is just an alias for the GUID - they are the same directory. Do your file operations from the "friendly name" to keep things simple. You can test this by moving/deleting/creating a file in the friendly name and verifying the same operation in the other directory.

When I have changed disks and copied the files back into the ESX, is there something more I should do?

You will have to re-register the VM on the host. That should be it.

Good Luck!

[dagkl]

Does the re-registering of the VMs mean running a cryptic command in the SC or is it a straight-forward procedure in Virtual Center?

[vmroyale]

No, everything can be done in the GUI. Just right-click on the powered-off VM and choose "Remove from Inventory" before you move the actual files. After you have moved them, use the datastore browser to navigate to the virtual machine's .VMX file and right-click on it and then choose "Add to Inventory."

If you have vCenter, you might also be able to just power off the VM and then right-click it and choose Migrate - depends on if you have any other storage.

[dagkl]

No, I do not have any other storage, thats why I have to do this exersize.

Thank you very much for the help, I will have a go at it this evening.