Anyone here an VMware ESXi master?

[drift_g35]

Just got a new (productions old) server for our development team. Unfortunately our IT Manager is swamped and has no idea how to override the 2tb storage capacity. Is there anyway around this? We are trying to get 1 vm with 3tb of storage to hold our SQLServer databases. Figured I would check here before going to stackoverflow.

Version of VMware is: ESXI, 4.1.0, 800380

Thanks guys.

[Sawin]

You may need to power down the VM to adjust it, but while in the vsphere management client, where you see all of your VM's, right-click on the one you wish to adjust, select "edit settings" -> go to the hardware tab and you'll see a variable for "provisioned size". You can adjust it up as long as the hardware in the host has sufficient capacity. There should be a "maximum size" noted on this screen as well that is determined by the hardware and other vm's. Best practice in my experience is to leave 12-15%+ available...

[drift_g35]

You may need to power down the VM to adjust it, but while in the vsphere management client, where you see all of your VM's, right-click on the one you wish to adjust, select "edit settings" -> go to the hardware tab and you'll see a variable for "provisioned size". You can adjust it up as long as the hardware in the host has sufficient capacity. There should be a "maximum size" noted on this screen as well that is determined by the hardware and other vm's. Best practice in my experience is to leave 12-15%+ available...

Unfortunately its not the individual VM's that I am trying to increase (yet). The datastore for the entire server is broken down into different partitions with VMware only allowing 2tb Max to a partition. If I was able to change this I could edit the individual VM settings. Here is a screenshot.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5480/9413972039_e7efbbbd5a_b.jpg

[Sawin]

Ah, I see.... I've never had to adjust that before and looking at my environment, mine simply shows the hos tHD's and NAS true capacities.... Because I don't know any better, I wonder if you are seeing the physical disk sizes there?

[drift_g35]

Ah, I see.... I've never had to adjust that before and looking at my environment, mine simply shows the hos tHD's and NAS true capacities.... Because I don't know any better, I wonder if you are seeing the physical disk sizes there?

Looking at the server I have 6 1tb hd's and I am going to assume they are set to RAID 3 which is why I am missing 1.5 tb of space. However there are no actual partitions on the server, VMware is doing this all on its own.

[Sawin]

Sorry I can't be of any help. When you uncover the secret, I'd love to hear what it is.

[ChadAmberg]

Hehh, I'm in a VMware class right now, but I've been doing it a couple years. What you're looking for is "extents".

Basically lets say you have 4tb of unused space in multiple LUNs. Make an initial datastore using all the space on LUN 1. Then select that new datastore in the datastore and datastore clusters view. Select Configuration -> Properties. Click Increase, and it should give you the unused LUNs to add to this initial datastore.

In your case, whack an unused LUN or get a new one. Then just do the Increase on the existing DS...

[ChadAmberg]

Oh and just to show off a little bit, here's the resources off of one of the three clusters I get to take care of:
32021

Yeah, thats 1.266 terahertz of CPU (576 CPU cores) driving 6 terabytes of RAM. Not too shabby...

[drift_g35]

Hehh, I'm in a VMware class right now, but I've been doing it a couple years. What you're looking for is "extents".

Basically lets say you have 4tb of unused space in multiple LUNs. Make an initial datastore using all the space on LUN 1. Then select that new datastore in the datastore and datastore clusters view. Select Configuration -> Properties. Click Increase, and it should give you the unused LUNs to add to this initial datastore.

In your case, whack an unused LUN or get a new one. Then just do the Increase on the existing DS...

So looking at the extents and it only shows 1. And when I try to add another or increase nothing shows up.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7314/9418025264_2d7b7504dc_o.jpg

[theGinsue]

Just took (and failed) the VMware VSphere 5.1 (VCP5) cert test on Tuesday. I knew I wasn't ready for it but the voucher was expiring on 31Jul and my company gave me no choice. I'll be re-testing in about 6 weeks (this time on my dime) so I'll be ready!

[ChadAmberg]

So looking at the extents and it only shows 1. And when I try to add another or increase nothing shows up.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7314/9418025264_2d7b7504dc_o.jpg

Are there any available unused LUNs? If you delete an existing datastore that's empty to add to this one, it may take a little bit of time before it'll show up.

[cfortune]

That might be a limitation of ESXi 4. We're running 5:

http://imageshack.us/a/img706/4779/ta87.jpg

I'm not our VMWare admin anymore but when I was these same data stores were in use. I'll ask our current one if he knows anything about a 2 TB limit.

[wax_job]

It's a limitation on VMFS.

Run VMFS5 and you don't have the 2tb restriction.

[wax_job]

Hard cap, so you can grow UP TO 2tb.

Extents would have worked fine if you were 1tb+1tb

[ChadAmberg]

D'oh completely missed that you're still on 4.x. Sorry about that.
You'll probably just want to split out drives then. DBs on F:, TLogs on G:, backups on H:, that kind of thing, and just spread out the VMDKs where you have space. No other good answer I guess.

[drift_g35]

Hmm, I was able to get my datastore to 4tb with 2 extents. Are you saying this will not work?

[drift_g35]

VMware is so damn complicated. I got the OS installed (windows server 2008) and it is only recognizing 256g of my datastore, I also had to reinstall after I shut down the VM. I understand why this is a full time, high paying position in the IT field.

[buckshotbarlow]

sorry, but you have to upgrade...vmfs5 will fix your problem.

[CareyH]

My really good friend George was the Chief cloud executive for VMware for many years, I could ask him if you can't figure it out.

[theGinsue]

It's a limitation on VMFS.

Run VMFS5 and you don't have the 2tb restriction.


Hard cap, so you can grow UP TO 2tb.

Extents would have worked fine if you were 1tb+1tb

I was looking at the Maximums for 5.1 and if I had time was going to pull up 4's also - didn't have time. I didn't suggest this as I'm uncertain about my knowledge level now after blowing the test. Happy to see I was on the right track after all.

[wax_job]

I was looking at the Maximums for 5.1 and if I had time was going to pull up 4's also - didn't have time. I didn't suggest this as I'm uncertain about my knowledge level now after blowing the test. Happy to see I was on the right track after all.

You da man Ginsue, don't anyone tell you otherwise.

[bogie]

Owhay elseway oesn'tday understandway isthay erdnay alktay?

[wax_job]

Anyone wanna hire an overpaid nerd with 2 thumbs? *this guy*

[cfortune]

Anyone wanna hire an overpaid nerd with 2 thumbs? *this guy*

We're hiring for a senior Windows admin as well as a DevOps engineer.