Can't boot VMWare virtual mchine after resizing disk

Hi

How did you increase the size?? Editing the settings and just change the Gb value??

If you have snapshots(and you have) you cannot change that.

Jail

I used these instructions:

To increase the virtual disk from the command line:

    Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).
    Navigate to the product's installation directory. For more information, see Locating a VMware product's installation directory (1003897).
    Type vmware-vdiskmanager -x 100Gb vm.vmdk and press Enter.

    Note: Replace 100Gb with the actual size of virtual disk that you want. You can also specify Kb and Mb.
     
    Follow the steps in Increasing the size of a disk partition (1004071) so the guest operating system is aware of the change in disk size.

I just need to know what I have to do to be able to get this machine up and running again, either with the old or new disk size.

Hi

I think now you need to change the CID to go backup and run the normal vmdk.

Check here how:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007969

Also if not, you need to recreate the descriptor file for disk.

Check here:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004232

Changing the CID I have done this a couple of times, but never need to recreate the file.

Jail

It appears that there are 4-5 snapshots...Can I somehow boot from a snapshot that was taken before I increased the size of the .vdmk?

Understood.  And I did make a fresh backup of the entire folder that houses this virtual machine before I increased the disk size.  Maybe that would be the easiest way to get the machine back up and running.....Just restore the .vdmk file that I increased the size on?

Yes, much easier.

One more thing.....Can I manually(SAFELY) delete all snapshots be just deleting any and all files with .0000x appended to them?

Hi

You should delete the files using the vSphere Client.

Jail

This is on a VMWare Server (not ESX, ESXi, etc...).

Hi

Upss sorry :)

I think is menu, VM, then Snapshot, inside you have snapshot manager. Inside you can delete all snapshots.

Jail

Well, this is just great. When trying to restore the files from backup, I'm running into errors. Plan B should be to try and change the CID I suppose?

Yes, fix the CID.

Thanks.  All the links you posted looks like they are for Linux/Vi.  I am running VMWare Server on a Windows 2003 machine.  Any idea how to change the CID from within Windows?

Hi

Is the same.

In your files you just edit the vmdk file and change the CID.

If is Linux you can use a WinSCP to edit the files, if is in Windows you can use a normal notepad to edit(I use Notepad++)

Jail

Edit files with Wordpad!

I'm not following you.  I can see the files in Windows Explorer.  If I right click and "Open With">Notepad, it is just a bunch of gibberish.  

There we go, WordPad allows me to see the CID.  Sure hope this works.  

Hi

Ahh ok, since I used my Nopead++ I tough that notepad basic will also see the CID.

But yes, when notepad doesn't work, WordPad works.

Jail

So I have the following files:
<name>.vdmk
<name>-000001.vdmk
<name>-000002.vdmk
<name>-000003.vdmk
<name>-000004.vdmk
<name>-000006.vdmk

Do I need to modify each one of these files or just the one (<name>-000006.vdmk) that throws out the error when trying to boot?

Sorry, this is just REALLY confusing.

Two of the .vdmk files appear to be too large to open in WordPad.....If I only need to change the latest .vdmk file, I can do that.  This file has the same CID and Parent CID.

I guess my question is now:

Can I change the parent CID of <filename>-000006.vdmk to match the CID of the base image(<filename>.vdmk)?

Hi

You need to change all CID that is not correct. Parent CID from file 002 must be equal to CID 003. Parent CID from 001 must equal to CID from 002(not parent the CID only).

You need to double check all files and see if parent and CID are correct.

Jail