Disk space discrepancy on vCenter disks after upgrading

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

After patching/upgrading vCenter a few hard disks show over 1TB of space available (some drives with 900GB of space allocated) 

 

Checking the precheck file and firstboot log we see the following : 

 Pre-check file:
 
 "deploymentSize": "small",
 "deploymentSizeWithStorageType": "large-lstorage",
 
 Drive sizes based above information: 
 
 LVM_SNAPSHOT:
 
  <Item configuration="large-lstorage">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>1</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk lvm_snapshot</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk500GB</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>25</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>10</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
   
VTSDB:

<Item configuration="large-lstorage">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>14</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk vtsdb</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk550GB</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>22</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
   
SEAT:

<Item configuration="large-lstorage">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>14</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk vtsdb</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk550GB</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>22</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
   
7.0 drives:

 "mountedOn": "/storage/seat",
                "size": 541.0,
                "used": 3.9,
                "free": 509.0

 "mountedOn": "/storage/vtsdb",
                "size": 541.0,
                "used": 0.04,
                "free": 513.0

firstboot/visl-support-firstboot.py_13784_stdout.log

deployment.size is small-xlstorage

Drives sizes based on what was selected:

SEAT:
<Item configuration="small-xlstorage">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>8</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk seat</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk1430GB</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>16</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>

VTSDB:

<Item configuration="small-xlstorage">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>8</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk seat</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk1430GB</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>16</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
   
LVM_SNAPSHOT:

<Item configuration="small-xlstorage">
        <rasd:AddressOnParent>8</rasd:AddressOnParent>
        <rasd:ElementName>Harddisk seat</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:HostResource>ovf:/disk/disk1430GB</rasd:HostResource>
        <rasd:InstanceID>16</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
        <rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 

Cause

The root cause lies in a misalignment between the original deployment configuration and the post-upgrade configuration. Prior to the upgrade, the appliance was configured with a "small" size and "large-lstorage" type, allocating 500GB for several disks. Post-upgrade, the configuration was inadvertently set to "small" with "xlstorage," resulting in the provisioning of 1.4TB drives. This over-provisioning explains the excessive disk footprint despite low actual utilization.

Resolution

• Backup the vCenter Server Appliance:
  • Follow Configure and Schedule Backups to backup the vCenter. 
• Deploy a new vCenter Server Appliance 
  • Follow Step 1 of Restore vCenter Server from a File-Based Backup
  • Install a new instance of the vCenter Server appliance with the correct storage configuration:
    • Size: "small"
    • Storage Type: "large-lstorage" (or verify the recommended type based on your environment).
• Restore from Backup:
  • Follow Step 2 of Restore vCenter Server from a File-Based Backup
• Validate the restoration process to ensure all services and configurations are intact.
  • Verify Disk Utilization on the vCenter  

Additional Information

The VCSA Installation wizard incorrectly detects the storage deployment size of the source vCenter during migration or upgrade