Expanding a disk size beyond 2TB shows the error "the capacity exceeds the maximum virtual disk size for the datastore" on NFS3 datastore

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The issue is observed on the vCenter and this prevents expanding disks beyond 2TB, adding disks of greater than 2TB and migrating VMs greater than 2TB to the affected datastore.

The maximum virtual disk size would be reported as 2TB on the vCenter instead of 62TB which is the maximum supported size for NFSv3.

Logging in directly to the host will allow expanding disk more than 2TB and adding disks higher than 2TB.

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Cause

Incorrect datastore parameters are reported by the host to the vCenter.

Resolution

Resolution : Restarting host management agents service would fix the issue and the maximum virtual disk size will report 62TB as expected.

Steps for same:

1. Enable SSH on the ESXi host.
2. Login as root and restart the hostd management agents using following commands :
   
   /etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart
   

Workaround : Expand the disk size from Host UI (https://host_fqdn_or_ip/ui) 

Additional Information

Refer following kb for additional details on virtual machine disks larger than 2 TB https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/321231/support-for-virtual-machine-disks-larger.html