Extending Disk or performing snapshot operation from VCD/vCenter fails with Error "The hard drives of the virtual machine "XX"

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Unable to extend Disk nor perform snapshot operation from VCD/vCenter. It fails with error "The hard drives of the virtual machine "XX" may not be modified, once created.

Environment

vCloud Director 10.x 

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

• Fast provisioned hard drives and hard drives that are part of a VM snapshot cannot be resized
• Some hard drive properties cannot be modified while the virtual machine is powered on

Resolution

 Consolidate the Fast Provisioned VM from Cloud Director so that it no longer depends on the Parent Disk

1. Log in to the vCloud Director UI with admin credentials

2.Right click the affected VM and click on properties. Verify that chain length is 2 or greater. A chain length of 1 indicates that all the disks are flat and do not refer to parent disks

3. Right click the affected VM > Properties  and select option to remove snapshot