Description

To expand the existing virtual machine disks and add new disks, please refer to Chapter 5.2.7 Virtual Machine Editing of this document.

Precautions

1. The disk partitions list includes MBR and GPT. The MBR partition list supports a maximum of 2TB hard disk, and the GPT partition list supports a maximum of 128pb (1PB = 1024TB). Please refer to the best practice configuration for the disk size of the virtual machine.

2. HCI5.8.7 and earlier versions need to shut down the virtual machine to expand the size of a single disk of the virtual machine.
3. HCI5.8.8 can expand disk capacity after startup.
4. Virtual machines support adding new hard disks online.
5. IDE disk type does not support disk thermal expansion. Vmtools need to be installed.
6. The derived virtual machine does not support system disk expansion.
7. Due to the operating system itself, the Windows Server 2016 datacenter system disk does not support capacity expansion.
8. Creating a dynamic disk with large storage may fail when the storage is small. For example, a 63TB dynamic disk is created on 4TB virtual storage.
9. When pre-allocated disks are expanded, the disk type after the expansion is thin provisioning. For example, the original 80GB disk is expanded to the original 80GB disk.

Prerequisites

Need to install the vmTools and enable virtio disk for power on expansion.

Steps

1. Place the mouse over the virtual machine whose disk needs to be expanded, and click More > Edit.

2. Edit virtual machine: Increase the Disk Capacity to the required size. In this example, adjust the disk size from 80GB to 500GB, and then click OK.

3. Enter the virtual machine console: Place the mouse over the virtual machine, and click More > Console.
4. Virtual machine disk management: Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc to access disk management.

5. Refresh disk information: Click the refresh button in the disk management toolbar. After identifying the newly expanded space, the new space can be used to create a new simple volume or expand an existing volume. The following demonstration is to expand a volume. As shown in the figure below.

6. Right-click the disk and then click Extend Volume. The expand volume wizard will pop up. The expansion process is simple. Operate according to the system prompt and will not be repeated.

7. Finish adding: As shown in the figure below, the disk expansion operation is complete.