ESXi – expanding vmdk file fails with insufficient space on file system

vmware-esxivmware-vmdk

I receive the following error

Failed to extend disk : There is not enough space on the file system for the selected operation (13).

When I run this command: vmkfstools -X 240G srvr.vmdk
The disk is thick provisioned, lazy zeroed.
The host is ESXi 5.1.
The guest is Windows Server 2012.
The datastore is mapped to a compellent storage device. The volume on the compellent was expanded from 80GB to 250GB. It maps correctly, and I can power on the guest OS.

The original request was for a simple test server, which, after deployment, changed, and required the system to have additional space. I retrieved a replay from the compellent and expanded the volume. Then mapped it back to the ESXi host. The volume on the compellent shows the full 250GB. Now I need to expand the datastore.

Am I using the wrong command for this? I am unable to expand the vmdk from the GUI either.

EDIT:

Filesystem Bytes Used Available Use% Mounted on
VMFS-5 294473695232 1158676480 293315018752 0% /vmfs/volumes/datastore1
VMFS-5 139318001664 2864709632 136453292032 2% /vmfs/volumes/somevm
VMFS-5 160792838144 125716922368 35075915776 78% /vmfs/volumes/anothervm
VMFS-5 536602476544 494941503488 41660973056 92% /vmfs/volumes/andanother
VMFS-5 64156073984 63406342144 749731840 99% /vmfs/volumes/andanother
VMFS-5 85630910464 81241571328 4389339136 95% /vmfs/volumes/THE_ONE_IN_QUESTION
vfat 4293591040 24051712 4269539328 1% /vmfs/volumes/50ca717d-17c1122c-dbec-2c768a4e2660
vfat 261853184 153255936 108597248 59% /vmfs/volumes/2bb93c74-2cc389b3-62c1-8dec8ed7d2d2
vfat 261853184 8192 261844992 0% /vmfs/volumes/2c3de672-0bfb1f9c-3398-32baad5c2871
vfat 299712512 211755008 87957504 71% /vmfs/volumes/50ca7177-21183a3e-94c4-2c768a4e2660

Best Answer

Just posting as an answer, so you can accept ;-)

The LUN from the storage array represents a VMFS datastore. The VMDKs represent the virtual disks of the VMs. After expanding a LUN on the array, you first need to grow the datastore before being able to extend the VMDK.

Clearly (from the output of df): 85630910464 = 80G. So the VMFS still had the old size.

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