Adding or expanding a vmdk disk larger than 2TB shows the error "The capacity exceeds the maximum virtual disk size for the datastore" on VMFS datastore

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to add or expand vmdk larger than 2TB on VMFS datastore
• vSphere Client UI shows the error "The capacity exceeds the maximum virtual disk size for the datastore"

• Unable to perform storage vMotion with vmdk larger than 2TB
• Datastore properties shows "Maximum virtual disk size" as 2TB

Environment

ESXi 7.0x

Cause

Following storage operation on one same datastore would set "Maximum virtual disk size" as 2TB incorrectly.
Unmount -> Detach -> Rescan -> Attach -> Rescan -> Mount

Note: Some rescan operations may not need to recreate the issue.

Resolution

ESXi 8.0GA or later resolved this issue.

Workaround:
Restarting host management agents service would fix the issue.

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

Additional Information

Expanding a disk size beyond 2TB shows the error "the capacity exceeds the maximum virtual disk size for the datastore" on NFS3 datastore
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/388171/ 

Unable to create or expand a vmdk disk located on a NFS datastores to size more than 2TB on a Vcenter server
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/323032/ 

Unable to extend VM disk on an NFS41 datastore: error 'The capacity exceeds the maximum virtual disk size for the datastore'
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/374090/ 

VMFSデータストアにて 2TB を超えるディスクを追加あるいは拡張しようとした際に「キャパシティが、データストア用仮想ディスクの最大サイズを超えています」というエラーメッセージが表示される (Japanese KB)