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jeff_dbsi
Contributor
Contributor

Expanding HDD when server is on error

I updated my clients ESX hosts from 6.0U2 to 6.5U1 build 7526125, they have VMWare 6 Essentials. I guess in 6.0U2 there was a bug when trying to change any setting on a VM you would receive a error that there was no room on the datastore. So I updates to ESX 6.5U1 on Thursday. After I updated I powered on the VM and was able to expand the drive with no issues. I need to expand the drive again, but now I am receiving a prompt that "Failed to reconfigure virtual machine (VM Name). The attempted operation cannot be preformed in the current state (Powered on)." the VMDK is thick provisioned with lazily zeroed. The only thing I noticed that was odd is the maximum size is reporting 2.24TB which is the free space left on the datastore. I am use to seeing the Maximum Size being what the current VMDK file size is plus what is free on the datastore.

There are no snapshots for the server and no active backups running, the VM is running Server 2012 R2.

I don't want to have to power off the VM every time I need to expand the drive.

Thoughts????

10 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Check manually in the VM folder if any snapshot reside there,  Expand the virtual disk, to check it's name... if contains 0000something, than there is a snap. sometimes it won't display in snapshots but files are still there.

Regards,

Randhir

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jeff_dbsi
Contributor
Contributor

I checked the datastore and I don't see anything with any numbers on the end that would be any old snapshot volumes lying around.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

can you share disk Edit settings view screen shot and VMX file  here .

Regards,

Randhir

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jeff_dbsi
Contributor
Contributor

Here is a screenshot of the settings

pastedImage_0.png

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Finikiez
Champion
Champion

Hi!

You have a virtual disk attached to IDE controller.

It's not possible to increase IDE disk size online unfortunately.

You have to power off VM to increase the disk.

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jeff_dbsi
Contributor
Contributor

Would there be any issues in moving it to a SCSI connection?

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Finikiez
Champion
Champion

What is a guest OS inside your VM? Some old OS may not include drivers for virtual SCSI controller like LSI Logic.

Than if the disk is not bootable disk you can just reattach it to a virtual SCSI controller.

If it's a bootable device you will need to convert your VM using VMware Converter.

Also you can read KB article VMware Knowledge Base

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jeff_dbsi
Contributor
Contributor

It is Server 2012 R2, the main VMDK which hold the OS is already attached to the VM via SCSI. This VMDK just stores data.

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Finikiez
Champion
Champion

Ok.

You will need to power off VM and change controller type from IDE to your existing SCSI controller. DIsk will have SCSI address like 0:1.

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jeff_dbsi
Contributor
Contributor

Tank you for your help, I have a window to power off the VM tomorrow afternoon so I can make the change from IDE to SCSI.