Disk size not displaying correctly after expanding vmdk

[Chiel]

I searched but couldnt find a quick answer.

I have a VM with a C and a D disk.

C = 8 GB

d = 5 GB

I now want to expand the 😧 drive to 10 GB, i used the following command for this;

vmkfstools -X 10240m //vmfs/volumes/45d98d0e-2f9f7738-8116-00127991c226//server.vmdk

Now when i look in Virtual Center and select the disk, it still says 5GB. When i look via the service console the disk really is the new format off 10 GB.

How can i easily update the view of the new disk size?

What i tried;

Relocate VM files (Doesn't work)

Closed VC2 en Reconnect to it (Doesn't work)

Restarting the Windows Virtual Center Service (Doesn't work)

removed the VM from the inventory and re-registered it (this works, but to much off a hassle imo)

Removed the disk from the VM and re-add it (this works, but to much off a hassle imo)

From the comand line;

service mgmt-vmware restart

This works as well.

Is there really no easier solutions then the ones i already tried?

Anyone have an idea?

[hicksj]

Restarting the VM causes it to re-read the vmdk header files too. (I think)

Another very simple solution is to ignore it. The only place you see that is under the VC guest configuration listing, right? Or are you running some external reports on what VC sees for all guest disk's?

[paulo_meireles]

I also experienced that. It's mainly a cosmetic issue, though, so I didn't lose my sleep because of it...

I haven't checked but I think that VC refreshes that from time to time, so it will eventually be right after a while, if you're patient. You may also try to rescan the SAN; it may force a refresh. But I'll be honest: I'm just guessing. If you try it, please let us know if it worked.

Paulo

[Chiel]

The VM is already powered down when you expand the disk, so it should read the config file to refresh it. I just powered on, off and on again to make sure it should have refreshed.

VC wont refresh it in time. Collegue expanded 2 disks 2 days ago, and today the display was still wrong.

Just did a rescan SAN, still no correct display.

Im not gonna loose sleep over it, but i do wanna be able to count on the displayed information that its displayed correctly.

Sometimes i get a question, how large is the disk from server so and so, and then look at the disks via VC to see how large they are.

Off course i can also check this through guest OS, or the command line. But this is imo more "work".

I agree its a cosmetics problem tho, and wont loose any sleep over it. But it would be nice to have an easy fix for it tho.

[acr]

Ive done this a lot, and it always happens.. But ive never known VC to take two days..?

[paulo_meireles]

I agree its a cosmetics problem tho, and wont loose any sleep over it. But it would be nice to have an easy fix for it tho.

I agree with you. However, it's not life threatening. I would open an SR nonetheless. If nobody complains, they won't see the need to fix it...

Paulo

[whynotq]

just been pointed at this by a customer of ours. He has this issue, the only work around I've found is to power off the VM, de-register it then re-register it seems ok, so, anyone found a way to dynamically re-register a VM?

Ok, I just tried something else. VMotion the VM and this refreshes it correctly, guess this is a simpler option the re-regsitration.

Message was edited by:

whynotq

[jjohnston1127]

You should also be able to power the server off, remove the disk from the virtual machine, add it back, then power on. It should refresh.

[bergerp]

Hi all. We're using VIC v2.01 build 40644 and I just saw the same issue where the Linux-based (RHEL4) VM was expanded, but VIC still said 10GB for Hard Disk 1.

Your messages/suggestions on Migrating the VM did the trick. It now says 40GB for the Hard Disk 1 (greyed out text).

I just wanted to thank the people who posted the answers in these forums and hope that VMWare support does indeed read them and will incorporate this fix into their next patch.