production windows guest unbootable after expanded vmdk

[adweitzsacker]

I've been looking for possible solutions, but not being the primary ESX 3.5 person, I'm probably phrasing the question wrong or not seeing the answer. Since I have a production server down, I'm looking for a relatively quick solution.

Planned to expand the vmdk on a Windows Server 2003 guest this morning. Log into the server via VMware Infrastructure Client 2.5 & shut down the server.

Next ssh into the esx console, get to the directory for this guest & issue the vmkfstools -X 20480m <file>.vmdk

Try to start the guest & see an error about snapshot (argh!) - since I think the existence of the snapshot is the problem, I delete this via VIC.

Of course this doesn't help - and probably made things worse.

Find KB article 1004232 and tried the first item - Base disk was modified in a snapshot tree. But this doesn't seem to help, getting the same error on attempt to power up the guest.

I've made a copy of the -flat.vmdk file to (hopefully) prevent further damage.

At the console, I see I still have the -000001.vmdk file, and a -000001-delta.vmdk file.

Unfortunately I'm more accustomed to using VMware workstation, which won't let you expand a disk with a snapshot present.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

--alan

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.

I hope you made a backup of the VMDK before you expanded it. Your best bet would be to restore that backup, commit all snapshots then expand the disk.

BTW, you can also expand the disk from the VIC. However, not with a snapshot.

THere is a way to fix the VM so it boots. You basically need to edit the snapshot tree..... However, on a VMDK with a changed disk size I am not sure the snapshots work anymore.....

Yes you are in a tight place but check out this forum (Virtual Machine and Guest OS) for several solutions.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[adweitzsacker]

Thanks - between what I found in forum posts and being reminded that a backup was made (on netapp - used snapshot from midnight), I now have the server back up & running, w/expanded space.

[continuum]

... your case could have been fixed ... post in WS-section next time

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