ESXi 5 - increase disk space

[kungpow]

Hi,

Info:

Server hard drive size: 4TB

What are the limitations on increasing a Windows Server virtual machine disk space size? For example, if win2k8 C: is 80GB, can I increase it to say to the maximum of 4000GB (eg. only 1 VM on host)?

I'm getting a new server and I would like to give the VMs small drives and increase disk space as necessary in the future as needed. How do I find out how much disk space can the drive be increased by?

If I start with smaller drives, does that mean I won't be able to increase the disk space as much as the VMs with bigger drives?

Thanks

[a_p_]

The maximum datastore/virtual disk size depends on the ESXi version you are using.

With ESXi 5.x and it's new file system format VMFS5 you can create datastores with up to ~64TB if the storage controller/system is supported. However, to create virtual disks larger than ~2TB you need to run ESXi 5.5 and your VMs have to run on virtual hardware version 10.

The initial virtual disk size is not important.

André

[abhilashhb]

As Andre mentioned you can have upto 2TB till 5.1 and from 5.5 you can have more than 2TB virtual drives.

But are you going to use all the space? I would also suggest you to consider thin provisioning if you want to use more than one VM. If you commit all storage to a single VM(whether it uses it or not) you will not be able to create new machines.

If you give thin diskd then you can over-provision the storage knowing the usage on the VM's

[kungpow]

With ESXi 5.5 Free edition, if I have 8TB of storage and I want to give a VM 4TB of storage, is this possible with free edition?

If not, what is required to get the VM working with more than 2TB of storage for the virtual disk?

Thanks

[weinstein5]

Yes the large VMDK size will work with the Free addition -

[kungpow]

For virtual disk larger than 2TB, with esxi 5.5 free, do I need to have the VM running on virtual machine hardware version 10?

If so, how will I manage the guest machine if I don't have vSphere Web Client?

What's the cost to purchase vSphere Web Client so I can manage the esxi 5.5 free?

Thanks

[SCMHenry]

You can buy VMware Workstation 10 to manage your ESXi 5.5 free hypervisor.

[kungpow]

Andre: "However, to create virtual disks larger than ~2TB you need to run ESXi 5.5 and your VMs have to run on virtual hardware version 10."

I just did a test. I installed ESXi 5.5.0 Free on a Dell T420 server, created a new VM (hardware version 8), created a vmdk disk of 3.5TB (used vSphere Client), and tested it in Windows Server 2012 Standard and it worked.

So are vmdk disks of greater than 2TB supported on ESXi 5.5.0 Free with vSphere Client? I didn't have to use vSphere Web Client to create the 3.5TB vmdk disk.

Higher limit on VMDK size.

https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/vddk-550-releasenotes.html

"In vSphere 5.5, virtual machine disks can be larger than 2TB (two terabytes). The > 2TB virtual disk can reside on a VMFS-5 partition, but not on VMFS-3 or NFSv2. Check with your NAS vendor for information about disk size support on NFSv3."

I just checked the ESXi 5.5.0 VMFS file system and it's running VMFS 5.60. So is the greater than 2TB virtual disk not dependent on the guest hardware version?

[abhilashhb]

Yes, You can have upto 64TB sized VMDK's starting from vSphere 5.5.

[kungpow]

Abhilash: "Yes, You can have upto 64TB sized VMDK's starting from vSphere 5.5."

So I don't need to use the 'vSphere Web Client' to use the new feature? I can create > 2TB virtual disks in vSphere Client 5.5.0 but I want to confirm that using vSphere Client is supported to create the > 2TB disks and won't cause any problems later on.

This message comes up during login with vSphere Client 5.5.0:

"In vSphere 5.5, all new vSphere features are available only through the vSphere Web Client. The traditional vSphere Client will continue to operate, supporting the same feature set as vSphere 5.0, but not exposing any of the new features in vSphere 5.5.

The vSphere Client is still used for the vSphere Update Manager (VLM) and Host Client, along with a few solutions (eg. Site Recovery Manager)."

Because of that login message, I thought I had to use vSphere Web Client to create > 2TB virtual disks?

Thanks

[abhilashhb]

I have not tried it myself. But if you were able to do it using the vSphere client then it should work.

The message you get is because VMware is deciding to get rid of C# client in future and are slowly moving towards it. The Hardware version 10 can only be edited using web client.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Sorry, my bad. The virtual disk size dosn't depend on the HW version, it's just ESXi 5.5 and VMFS5.

Anyway some words for clarification:

• You can create virtual disks with up to 16TB in the C# Client
• Large virtual disks > 2TB-512Bytes (with up to 62TB, not 64TB) are not officially supported in the C# Client, although this may work for disks <=16TB (see vSphere 5.5 Storage Enhancements Part 1: 62TB VMDK)
• Note: You cannot manage VMs with HW version 10 in the C# Client.

André

[abhilashhb]

Sorry that was a typo. 62TB not 64TB.

[kungpow]

André: "Large virtual disks > 2TB-512Bytes (with up to 62TB, not 64TB) are not officially supported in the C# Client, although this may work for disks <=16TB"

VMware KB: Support for virtual machine disks larger than 2 TB in vSphere 5.5

"You must use the vSphere Web Client to create or extend a VMDK beyond 2 TB."

I have ESXi 5.5.0 free edition and I can create a 4TB vmdk disk using vSphere 5.5.0 C# client without any errors. Is this safe, will I have any disk problems later on?

[a_p_]

Unfortunately I can't tell your whether it's save or not, only VMware can answer this question. According to the link I mentioned it's not supported.

However, since the ESXi binaries are the same regardless of the management client, I don't expect issues with this.

André

[kungpow]

Hi André,

You can create virtual disks with up to 16TB in the C# Client

I can't find this info on VMware's website that says C# clients can create disks up to 16TB. Can you please provide the link for this info?

Thanks