Clone VM

[maiconlp]

Hello, I have an VM with Windows 2008R2 Guest That disk C is in 95% and it format is Tick Provision Lazy Zeroed and I can't rise it. So I want to clone the VM and change the disk format to Thin Provision. That way I Think I'm going to rise the disk C.

So... I'm afraid to do that format conversion. for exemplo, if there were any problem in the process of clone my primary VM can stuck and no power up more ? or any other problem....

thanks.

any tip about clone and conversion format is welcome.

[mrksiddiqui]

1. Shut the Guest VM and you can edit the disk size.

2. Start the VM and increase the size in Disk management services.

[Troy_Clavell]

you should have no problems extending the C: drive of this guest.  Ensure you have no snapshots on the guest, edit settings of the guest change the provisioned size, then go into the guest OS and extend the volume.

Using diskmanager, you can right click on the C: drive and "extend"

[a_p_]

Would you mind to explain why you cannot expand the thick disk but you think you can do this with a thin disk. With already 95% of the disk space used, a thin provisioned disk will not save much host disk space. If you are already low on host disk space, a thin provisioned disk could become a time bomb by silently filling up the disk space.

André

[maiconlp]

Hi,

Would you mind to explain why you cannot expand the thick disk but you think you can do this with a thin disk.

A: yes, at the moment I can't expand the disk C and I think that is because it is thick format. so if I changed it to thin format I think I'll be able expand it.

currently the guest ( Win2k8R2 ) doesn't recognize what I had expanded. maybe a reboot at the VM solve the issue.

thanks

[Tsjo · Accepted solution]

yes, at the moment I can't expand the disk C and I think that is because  it is thick format. so if I changed it to thin format I think I'll be  able expand it.

Thick or thin shouldn't matter since the OS doesn't know what kind is used.

When you say you can't expand the disk; do you mean in the OS or in vCenter?

If in inside the VM and if you've tried expanding using the graphical Disk Management software (the one under Computer Management) I suggest you skip it and use diskpart instead. In my experience the graphical manager isn't very reliable.

Command prompt > diskpart, list volume, select volume <the-number-of-your-volume>, extend filesystem.

[maiconlp]

When you say you can't expand the disk; do you mean in the OS or in vCenter?

A: in the OS. the disk C doesn't recognize that it have expanded. I have expanded the disk by vCenter in the Edit Settings > Provisioned Size from 40G to 60G but even run by diskpart the disk C doesn't recognize the more 20G has risen.

maybe a reboot ?? at the moment I can't reboot it. but I will.

thanks

[a_p_]

Does the guest OS show different partition sizes in the upper and lower pane in the disk management? I've seen this some times (even on physical systems). The reason for this seems that the partition end information is not correctly updated in the partition table. What usually helps is to e.g. add another 1GB to the virtual disk and resize the guest partition again or modify the partition size (reduce and grow again) in the disk management.

André