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versions of vSphere, administrators could use multiple extents as a way of getting past the 2 TB
limit for VMFS-3 datastores. By combining multiple extents, vSphere administrators could take
VMFS-3 datastores up to 64 TB (32 extents of 2 TB each). VMFS-5 eliminates this need because it
now supports single-extent VMFS volumes of up to 64 TB in size. However, adding extents is not
the only way to expand a VMFS datastore.
If you have a VMFS datastore (either VMFS-3 or VMFS-5), there are two ways of expanding it
to make more space available:
You can dynamically expand the VMFS datastore.
VMFS can be easily and dynamically expanded in vSphere without adding extents, as
long as the underlying LUN has more capacity than was coni gured in the VMFS data-
store. Many modern storage arrays have the ability to nondisruptively add capacity to
a LUN; when combined with the ability to nondisruptively expand a VMFS volume,
this gives you a great deal of l exibility as a vSphere administrator. This is true for both
VMFS-3 and VMFS-5.
You can add an extent.
You can also expand a VMFS datastore by adding an extent. You need to add an extent
if the datastore is a VMFS-3 datastore that has already hit its size limit (2 TB minus
512 bytes) or if the underlying LUN on which the datastore resides does not have any
additional free space available. This latter condition would apply for VMFS-3 as well as
VMFS-5 datastores.
These procedures are extremely similar; many of the steps in both procedures are exactly
the same.
Perform these steps to expand a VMFS datastore (either by nondisruptively expanding the
datastore on the same LUN or by adding an extent):
1. In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the Hosts inventory list.
2. Select a host from the Navigator tree on the left, and then click the Related Objects tab in
the content area.
3. From the Datastores subsection, select the datastore you wish to expand.
4. Click the green Increase Datastore Capacity icon, shown in Figure 6.36. This will open the
Increase Datastore Capacity Wizard.
You'll note that this wizard looks similar to the Add Storage Wizard you saw previously
when creating a new VMFS datastore.
5. If the underlying LUN has free space available, then the Expandable column will report
Yes, as shown in Figure 6.37. Select this LUN to nondisruptively expand the VMFS data-
store using the free space on the same LUN.
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