Cannot extend a vmdk over 1TB

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot increase the size of a virtual disk on an ESX/ESXi 3.x host beyond 1024GB.
• When extending a vmdk over 1TB (1024 GB), on an ESX/ESXi 3.x host using the Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Client, these errors are displayed:
• The size of the virtual disk becomes 1023GB
• If the size of the virtual disk is increased when the virtual machine is powered off:
  
  
  • The Reconfigure Virtual Machine task completes successfully.
  • The /var/log/vmware/hostd.log file contains an error similar to:
    
    'BaseLibs' nnnn info] FILE: Requested file size (-1099511627776) larger than maximum supported filesystem file size (1099511627776)
    
    'BaseLibs' nnnn info] DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to grow disk '/vmfs/volumes/DiskUUID/VirtualMachine/VirtualMachine.vmdk' : The destination file system does not support large files (12).

• If the size of the virtual disk is increased when the virtual machine is powered on:
  
  
  • The Reconfigure Virtual Machine tasks fails with error:
    
    A general system error occurred: Internal error
    
    
  • The /var/log/vmware/hostd.log file contains an error similar to:
    'Vmsvc' nnn info] Failed to get result state: HotExtendDisk: Error: Internal error
    
    Failed to grow disk 'vmfs/volumes/DiskUUID/VirtualMachine/VirtualMachine.vmdk' : The destination file system does not support large files (12)
    
    
• You may also see this error:
  
  A value exceeded the acceptable range

Environment

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded

Resolution

This issue has been resolved in ESX 4.0. For more information, see the VMware vSphere Product Support Center.

The only way to increase the size of a vmdk beyond 1023 GB in ESX 3.5 using vmkfstools:

Warning: These troubleshooting steps require you remove and re-add the virtual machine to the Virtual Machine Inventory. Without removing the virtual machine from the inventory, the VI Client will only continue to recognize the old size of the vmdk.

1. Unregister the virtual machine from the Virtual Machine Inventory.
2. Extend the vmdk using vmkfstools command. For example:
   
   vmkfstools -X 1200G name_of_the_vmdk
   
   For more information, see Adding space to an ESX host virtual disk (994).
   
   
3. Re-register the virtual machine in the Virtual Machine Inventory.

Additional Information

For more information, see:

• Block size limitations of a VMFS datastore (1003565)
• Extending partitions in Windows using DiskPart (1007266)

Extending partitions in Windows using DiskPart
Adding space to an ESXi/ESX host virtual disk