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adjaddy

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Expanding a vmdk size

Hi
I have a vCenter server running on Windows XP Pro VM (VM version 7) on ESXi 4.0 host. It only has one volume on which XP has been installed.
I wish to re-install a Full version version of MS-SQL 2005 which is currently running on it so i can migrate the vcenter database to a new platform. I'm unable to increase the volume either through vsphere client (Edit settings of the VM) or using vmkfstools. any suggestions?
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FireW0lf

When you say you are unable to expand it, does it fail? Or does it succeed but when you log into the volume it appears the same size?

If the latter, remember you then need to expand the volume from within the VM - use Windows DiskPart
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FireW0lf
in vsphere, the box to increase the size of the vmdk file is greyed out.
when i connect via putty to the host, i am unable to add the additional  size to the OS partition volume.
Oh, and another thing - make sure you're running vmkfstools against the descriptor vmdk file, and NOT against the file with "flat" in the name
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shabrez

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Are youi using an IDE disk in the Virtual Machine, because you cannot expand them, only SCSI.

If you want to expand an IDE based VM, you'll need to use VMware Convertor.

It's a free download here.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
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Hanccocka

could give me a step by step instructions to do this. the VM has IDE disk
okay, this is the reason you cannot expand it. IDE disks do not support Expansion.

for conversion steps follow my fellow Expert Bestway's guide

https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/A_3639-VMware-vConverter-P2V-for-Windows-Servers.html
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Hanccocka

the machine is a VM; would that above process still work
yes, we call that a V2V, but the process is exactly the same, as a P2V.
Doing a conversion can help with increasing the disk size, but won't take care of the underlying problem of the virtual disk being IDE (if that indeed is the issue). If you need to modify your disk size in the future, I recommend modifying your virtual disk now to SCSI. That way you can modify your virtual disk as needed in the future without having to do a conversion. Conversion is good, but takes much longer. See this KB to change your virtual disk to SCSI:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016192

To increase your disk in the future, once it's changed to SCSI, see this KB:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004071; another option to increase your system volume (C:) virtual disk size once it's converted to SCSI, is to power down your VM and go into its Edit Settings and remove this virtual disk (*DO NOT DELETE*). On a 2nd VM, go into its Edit Settings area and Add a Hard Disk -> Use existing virtual disk, and browse to the datastore and VM folder location of the orig VM's vmdk file. Power down the 2nd VM and modify the virtual disk size as needed. Power on this 2nd VM, go into CMD window and use DISKPART to modify the partition size. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590) Once modified, go into this 2nd VM's Edit Settings and remove the virtual disk (again, *DO NOT DELETE*), then re-add it to the orig VM. If the drive is a non-sys volume drive, you can simply power down the VM, modify the disk size, power the VM back up, then use diskpart to change the partition size.

Regards,
~coolsport00
Hi

@coolsport00 You can also change the IDE to SCSI by converting the VM

On the Options step, you just need to choose "Edit Devices". Inside this option you can change the "Disk Controller".

Honestly never test this option, but there is an option to change this.

Jail