ClaudeVM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

How to increase disk size

Hi.

I've a Windows 2003 Virtual Machine who's C:\ is growing fast due to TrendMicro log and patterns.

Any solution to increase the disk size?

Kind regards.

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RvdNieuwendijk
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The solution is to increase the VM's hard disk in the vSphere client and afterwards to increase the guests c: disk with Dell's ExtPart. You can do this without downtime.

Regards, Robert

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition
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ClaudeVM
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Dear Robert, thank you very much.

Could you please explain it in detail? I've only VmWare Infrastructure Client and seems no possibly to increase the disk size during Virtual Machine is running.

Regards.

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RvdNieuwendijk
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In the VI client you can increase the disk size of a running VM with "Edit Settings". Select the Hard Disk which size you want to increase. Provide a new value for "Provisioned Size" and click OK.

Download ExtPart from the Dell's website. Copy it to the guest operating system. And run the ExtPart command. You have to specify the size in MB by which to extend the volume. To extend the c: volume by 10 GB (1024 MB) use the following command:
extpart c: 10240

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition
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ClaudeVM
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Dear Robert,

I'm sorry but in my VmWare Infrastructure Client as you can see below I don't have this option:

VmWareClient.png

I own 2.0.1 version, maybe in a new one? Where I can find it?

Regards.

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RvdNieuwendijk
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Leadership

I see. Maybe you can increase the hard disk size with your VMware Infrastructure version if you shutdown your guest first?

Normally you download the VI client from a ESX server or Virtual Center server's webpage.  Browse to an ESX server or Virtual Center server with your favourite web browser and click on "Download VMware Infrastructure Client".

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition
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RvdNieuwendijk
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I did some testing and noticed that the ability to increase the hard disk size of a running VM is a new feature of ESX 3.5.

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition
ClaudeVM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Dear Robert,

thank you very much for your research.

I'm going to check how to upgrade from 3.0.1 to 3.5 (maybe there are other interesting feature).

Kind regards.

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bulletprooffool
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Champion

quick walkthrough here:

http://www.get-virtual.info/2011/01/26/extending-a-windows-c-dell-extpart/

you have 3 further options though

1) you could use VMware converter to conver tand resize the machine disks (pretty easy)

2) attach the disk to a second VM and resize on this host - then re-attach to the original vm

3) Try vmkfstools

Good luck

One day I will virtualise myself . . .
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RvdNieuwendijk
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You can find the new features in the VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 5 Release Notes

If your hardware is supported you better upgrade to 4.1U1. There are a lot of new features in vSphere Smiley Wink.

You can always try to increase the hard disk if you shutdown your guest first. This will probably work.

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition
ClaudeVM
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Enthusiast

Thank you.

I'm trying to do that on a testing machine first.

Than I will try it on the production one.

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ClaudeVM
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After shutting down a backup PDC I'm not able in edit settings to change disk size with VMWare 3.0.1 and VI Client 2.0.1.

So at the moment no chance to change disk size with my server version.

I will check the impact and option to Upgrade to 4.1U1.

Regards.

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RvdNieuwendijk
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Your best bet now is to use VMware converter to make a copy of the VM and increase the disk size during the conversion.

Blog: https://rvdnieuwendijk.com/ | Twitter: @rvdnieuwendijk | Author of: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/learning-powercli-second-edition
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