Resizing virtual machine disk files that are protected by vSphere Replication (VR) using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
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Resizing virtual machine disk files that are protected by vSphere Replication (VR) using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager

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Article ID: 312799

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction


This article provides information on increasing the size of a VMDK protected by VMware vSphere Replication (VR) without doing a full synchronization.


Environment

VMware vSphere Replication 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 8.1.x
VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.0.x
VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5.x
VMware vSphere Replication 8.x

Resolution

To resize virtual machine disk files (vmdks) that are protected by vSphere Replication:

1. Locate the directory or directories where the virtual machine is currently replicating to on the target datastore. Rename the VM directory or replica disks with a temporary prefix. Do not rename the hbr*.vmdk disks.

2. Note and record the vSphere Replication configuration for the virtual machine (RPO settings, destination datastores, and so on).

3. Remove replication for the virtual machine at the protected site using the vSphere Replication User Interface (UI).

4. Re-size the virtual machine's disks on the protected virtual machine using Edit Settings.
 
5. Resize the virtual disk on the recovery site:
a. SSH to an ESXi host that has access to the datastore on the recovery site containing the replicated disks.
b. Change directory to where the vmdk files are stored.
c. Increase the size of the disk with the vmkfstools command:

vmkfstools -X size vmdk

For example:

vmkfstools -X 50G Test-VM.vmdk

5. Rename the VMDK replica disks back to their original name. 

6. Re-configure replication for the virtual machine, using the replication configuration you noted in step #2. You will need to select the datastore folder manually and you will be prompted to use the replicated disks as seeds.
For more information, see Replicating Virtual Machines Using Replication Seeds section on page 52 of the vSphere Replication Admin Guide.
 
Note: If you are using Stand Alone vSphere Replication, see Cannot resize the vmdk files during replication which are protected by vSphere Replication (2052883).

Workaround:

Upgrade ESXi and vCenter to 7.0 U1a or higher and the resize will happen automatically once the job is reconfigured. 


Additional Information

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