Increase datastore capacity by adding an extent via CLI

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Sometimes, it may be required for you to increase datastore capacity by adding an extent via CLI when the host UI is not reachable.

Current usage on the datastores
[root@localhost:~] df -h
Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on
VMFS-6     319.0G   1.4G    317.6G   0% /vmfs/volumes/Datastore-Name1
VMFS-6      14.0T  14.0T      1.6G 100% /vmfs/volumes/Datastore-Name2
VMFS-L     119.8G  10.5G    109.3G   9% /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-########-########-####-############
vfat         4.0G 211.2M      3.8G   5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1
vfat         4.0G 219.7M      3.8G   5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2

Environment

ESXi
VMFS

Resolution

Take the following steps to increase the capacity of the datastore by adding an extent via CLI

1. Identify naa/eui/t10 ID of the datastore. In this output, its naa.####################1
   [root@localhost:~] localcli storage vmfs extent list
Volume Name                                 VMFS UUID                            Extent Number  Device Name                    Partition
------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------  -------------  -----------------------------  ---------
datastore1 (3)                              68######-########-####-##########fc              0  naa.#####################          8
Datastore-01                                68######-########-####-##########fc              0  naa.####################1          1
OSDATA-########-########-####-############  68######-########-####-##########fc              0  naa.#####################          7
   
   
2. List naa/eui/t10 ID of all the LUNs. In this output, we want to use naa.####################2 as an extent to increase the size of the datastore Datastore-01
   [root@localhost:~] esxcfg-scsidevs -c
Device UID                         Device Type      Console Device                                        Size          Multipath Plugin    Display Name
naa.#####################          Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.#####################        14651290MB     NMP                 PURE Fibre Channel Disk (naa.#####################)
naa.####################1          Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################1        14651290MB     NMP                 PURE Fibre Channel Disk (naa.####################1)
naa.####################2          Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2        14651290MB     NMP                 PURE Fibre Channel Disk (naa.####################2)
   
   
3. Verify that a partition table does not exist on the device naa.####################2
   [root@localhost:/var/log] partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks//vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2
unknown
1867777 255 63 30005842608
   
   If a partition table does exist, remove the partitions
   partedUtil delete "/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2" 1
   Change the partition number in the above command as necessary and remove them. Then, follow step 5 to overwrite the partition and create a VMFS partition.
   
   
4. Check the VMFS partition number on the current datastore. In this output, we may see that its 1
   [root@localhost:~] partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################1
gpt
1867777 255 63 30005842608
1 2048 30005841919 AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 vmfs 0
   
   
5. Create the partition table and vmfs partition on the new disk
   
   Get usable sectors
   [root@localhost:~] partedUtil getUsableSectors /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2
34 30005842574
   
   Create partition table and the vmfs partition on it
   [root@localhost:~] partedUtil setptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2 gpt "1 2048 30005842573 AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 0"
gpt
0 0 0 0
1 2048 30005842574 AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 0
   Note: Set the ending sector as last usable sector minus. In this case, its 30005842574 -1 = 30005842573
   
   
6. Add the extent to the datastore
   [root@localhost:~] vmkfstools -Z /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2:1 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################1:1
VMware ESXi Question:
All data on /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.########################:1 will be lost. Continue and format?
0) _Yes
1) _No
Select a number from 0-1: 0
Successfully spanned volume
   Note: Note that in this command, the extent is specified first and the original LUN is specifed after
   
   
7. Perform a  rescan on the adapters and VMFS
   [root@localhost:~] localcli storage core adapter rescan --all
[root@localhost:~] vmkfstools -V
[root@localhost:~] 
   
   
8. Confirm that the datastore size of Datastore-01 has increased
   [root@localhost:~] df -h
Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on
VMFS-6     319.0G   1.4G    317.6G   0% /vmfs/volumes/Datastore-Name1
VMFS-6      27.9T  14.0T     14.0T  50% /vmfs/volumes/Datastore-Name2
VMFS-L     119.8G  10.5G    109.3G   9% /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-########-########-####-############
vfat         4.0G 211.2M      3.8G   5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1
vfat         4.0G 219.7M      3.8G   5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2

Additional Information

An attempt to add the LUN as extent without creating the partition table and the VMFS partition, will fail with the following message:
[root@localhost:~] vmkfstools -Z /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2:1 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################1:1
Device path name "/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.####################2:1" is not a valid absolute or relative path
Failed to resolve volume device path naa.####################2:1.
Usage: vmkfstools -Z span-partition
Error: No such file or directory