datastore getting low on space

[vmware128]

we currently have a vm which is stored on a single Datastore.(2 TB)   Is there a way to move individual vmdk files to different datastores without causing an outage? I looked at this link below , will it work? or is there a better way to do it? Storage vMotion a Single Disk | stuartmorley . I see about 8 vmdk files. The server has a F drive and G drive which. each virtual disk is 256 gig(8 of them which make up the F: and G: Drive)

[a_p_]

8 of them which make up the F: and G: Drive

This sounds as if the VM is running with active snapshots? Do the .vmdk names contain -00000x.vmdk?

André

[vmware128]

No, it's just a lot of data on this server so it required a lot of space. I don't see any -00000.vmdk.. Person before me created virtual disks in increments of  256gig on same datastore and then kept increasing the size of F: drive. Pretty much hold all of our users home directories and shares.

[a_p_]

So you are running a software RAID0 in the guest OS? Even though it should be possible to migrate the virtual disks online, I would be extremely careful in this case and rather either schedule downtime for the migration or - my personal preference - migrate the data to a new virtual disk (using e.g. robocopy in case of Windows) to get rid of the SW RAID. If you are still running an ESX/ESXi version prior to 5.x with the VMFS3 file system, you will need to create a datastore with an 8MB blocksize in order to create a 2TB (max. 2,032 GB if you want to be able to take snapshots) virtual disk.

In any case, ensure you have an up-to-date backup before doing this!

André

[stainboy]

Yes, go ahead and storage vmotion the disks you want. Your OS will never tell the difference. I've done that a lot of times. Migrate, select the disks you want and chose a different datastore with free space. For ESXi as long as it has access to the vmdk it will be OK. For the OS in the VM is transparent, you'll keep seeing the same thing (a F: or G: drive)