Expand disk size in VMWare ESX 4 option is grayed out

Hmm...so, when the VM is powered down, you're not able to add storage space to your virtual disk? You should be able to if you have space on the datastore to do so. You will then need to use either diskpart (if it's a windows partition, and not a system volume or volume w/swap file) to extend the drive within the OS, or a 3rd party tool like GParted or Paragon.

If that is grayed out, your only other alternative would be vCenter Converter.

~coolsport00

I shutdown the VM, right click and Reconfigure.  That opens converter and i go through the steps.  It allows me to modify the company name, etc, but not the hard drive size.

It's possible you have reached the largest size for a single volume on your datastore- depending on your block size- are you able to move it to another datastore at all?

I checked other VMs running on the same datastore, and I can increase the sizes of their disks.  The VM I'm trying to expand is only 10GB and I'm trying to make it 20GB.

I know that you said there are no snapshots - but sometimes snapshots like to stay hidden in the vSphere Client. Try this:

1. Power down the vm
2. Create a snapshot
3. Delete All Snapshots

See if the option to expand is available after that

Good Luck

You should simply be able to edit the guest view the current allocated disk's.
Type a new figure in and it's expanded.
Then via diskpart  expand the volume to fit the new disk size. (unless it's the system volume or a volume with page file or something the system depends on then your back to the converter)
You could also try the stand alone converter, I personally preferr the stand alone converter BUT it does missalign your disks.

If you have a VM b/u solution (Veeam, vRanfer, etc)....they use snapshotting. If any job failed at some point, or if a job is currently running, your disks will be locked & non-modifiable. SSH to your VM directory and see if there are snaps that way.

I just tried creating a snap and then deleting all..  that was a good thought but didn't make a difference.

markzz - that is my whole problem, I can't type in a new size for the disk because it is grayed out.

coolsport00 - i'm not the best with linux commands, what would I type after I connect?  When I look at the datastore under the VMs folder I don't see any snaps listed there in the GUI on the VIC.

I'm mobile at the moment & don't have the cmds, sorry :( But if you go to VMwares KB site & search 'delete snapshots', you should find it.

I found the article.  I will give it a shot.  It seems like creating a new snap in the client and then deleting all would clear it up if there were any lingering, but I'll still check and see.

cd /vmfs/volumes/datastorename/vmname
ls -l

Post output - also post screenshot of edit settings screen for the hard drive

Yes, that create and delete all trick has worked for me a time or two, but unfortunately it doesn't fix everything

Another thing to try - if you are using vCenter server, try connecting your client directly to the ESX box that has the troublesome VM and see if the option to reprovision becomes available.

One last thing - then I will shut up for a while :)

If the disk is an IDE drive instead of SCSI - the only way to expand it would be to use VMware Converter. If that is the case it might be good to convert it to SCSI at the same time.

Good Luck

Ah, it is listed as an IDE drive and not SCSI.  So I have to use the converter then?  The stand alone version?

Nice, this is the exact same problem and setup I have going.  Thanks for the article.  Maybe I'll try it out after I get a good backup.  Seems risky but don't have much for options...

Also, thanks everyone else for your suggestions and comments.  Always appreciated even if they didn't end up being the resolution.  Thanks!

Glad to assist and that you're up and working :)

~coolsport00

let me know if the method in that article works for you - so I can decide whether to bookmark it or not LOL - you always have converter for a fallback if it doesn't work.

vCenter Converter didn't give me the option, but I know standalone does.  But when I use the standalone one it tweaks the vm enough that it breaks licensing for the app on it.  That happened to me once already with it...  I'll post back after I try the method in the link.  Thanks

I am having the same trouble described in this posting, except my VM has SCSI drives, not IDE.  I also have other VMs on the same host with the same config that allow me to change the drive size.  If I run the SSH, I see as listed below (lvserv1 is my VM that won't allow me to resize disk).  Any thoughts?

[root@lpesx1 VNX5300-VMFS-LUN2]# [root@lpesx1 VNX5300-VMFS-LUN2]# ls -al
total 586176
drwxr-xr-t 1 root root      1960 Nov 30 11:30 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root       512 Dec 14 14:25 ..
-r-------- 1 root root   1441792 Aug 14 13:30 .fbb.sf
-r-------- 1 root root  63143936 Aug 14 13:30 .fdc.sf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      2800 Dec  6 09:41 liserv3.lpandt.local
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      2660 Dec 14 09:06 lvserv14.lpandt.local
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      4620 Dec 14 14:23 lvserv1.lpandt.local
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      3080 Dec 14 08:54 lvserv8.lpandt.local
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      2520 Dec 14 08:37 lvwork1.lpandt.local
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      2240 Dec 14 08:43 lvwork3.lpandt.local
-r-------- 1 root root 255655936 Aug 14 13:30 .pbc.sf
-r-------- 1 root root 260374528 Aug 14 13:30 .sbc.sf
-r-------- 1 root root   4194304 Aug 14 13:30 .vh.sf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      2100 Aug 15 11:07 W2k8-R2-template



Jeff

Hi Jeff, unfortunately, it is against EE policy to "piggy-back" someone elses post. You will have to open new question for your issue & we can try & assist you.

Regards.
~coolsport00