How to extend raw device mapped vmware drive

[madissimo]

Hi all,

I need to understand what is the best practice to exnted a secondary drive on a Windows 2008 server (vmware virtual machine).

This drive is a raw device mapped drive on an Eva 4400 san.

Situation:

I need to extend the disk capacity because it is almost full.

The raw device mapped lun his fully assigned to this disk drive.

I guess I have to extend the lun before assigning more space and after extend the size of that drive.

Does anyone know the best practice to extend lun and fs on disk drive?

Thanks everyone

[Vishal Jagad]

Hi,

Following should be the steps:

1. You need to extend the LUN size from the storage end.

2. At ESX end rescan the HBA to see the LUN size increment.

3. From VM rescan the disk to see the extended space.

4. using diskpart extend the drive.

experts please correct if i have missed anything...

[CiTox_HD]

Hi,

I agree, this is the correct way to do it.

[madissimo]

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CiTox_HD wrote:

Hi,

I agree, this is the correct way to do it.

Thanks guys!!! You confirmed what I got in my mind ;)

Another question: Do you think it's better to extend the lun with vmware machine turned off or it is not a problem?

I read somewhere it's better to turn off the vm and unmount the raw device mapping drive, extend the lun (storage side) and mount it on the machine once again. After this turn on the machine and disk partion os side.

Do you agree this procedure?

Thank a lot

Rob

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[CiTox_HD · Accepted solution]

If you want to be extra careful, sure you can turn off the VM, but I never had an issue doing it live....

I think unmounting the raw device is a bit extreme.  The whole point is to be able to be flexible with the HDD space management.  Having to shutdown everything to make a simple change defies the purpose..,

Try it out, and like any HDD changes just make sure you have a valid backup...

[PIMP_HAMSTER]

Hello Friends!

This Post Save my Day:) Thanx a lot!

I have a question for Backup. Sorry my bad english:)

We have a 1TB RAW-Device on the HP EVA4400 we use VMWare 4.1.

Now, i want to size the RAW-Device up to 2TB!
For the Backup we use Veeam B&R.
Now, a friend say me that i must have 2time the space that i backup, free on the disk. Mean if my LUN 2TB big, i must have other 2TB fro on the disk....is this correct?!?

im sceptical. i dont think that is correct.
BUT, how do vSpher Manage this issue? When i have i big Lun. How do it snapshot?

or, would you say that is not recomendet to us so big LUNs?

Thx a lot!