Tag Archives: p2v

Resizing (Shrinking) Drives With VMware Standalone Converter

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KB ID 0000185

Problem

Using: vSphere 6.7 and VMware Standalone Converter Version 6.2.0

I’m performing this procedure on vSphere 6.7, back ith the release of vSphere 5, This process changed, with vSphere 4 and VI3, you had to install VMware Converter on the vCenter Server then download and enable the plugin in your VI client software (like this).

VMware now only has the “standalone converter“, so now you DONT install anything on the vCenter server, the converter runs on a client machine/server.

Note: This article is primarily concerned with shrinking guest hard drives, If you want to make your drives larger you can also use this process but the following article will be easier. Resizing Windows Volumes / Drives in VMware vSphere / ESX

Also if space is your consideration, you also might want to consider; VMware ESXi – Converting ‘Thick’ Provisioned Drives to ‘Thin’

Solution

Resizing (Shrinking) Guest Hard Drives in vSphere

Before you start:

Remember you are cloning a machine, don’t have clients writing data to the machine while this is going on, or there is the potential for data to be lost. If possible disable any services that will accept data, e.g. Exchange, SQL, Oracle, etc, prior to cloning.

Licensing: Only really applicable if you’re cloning a physical machine, but make sure you DO NOT have OEM Licensing. Also if you have Windows Storage Server, or Windows Appliance Edition, you should speak to a license specialist.

Installing VMware converter is pretty straightforward, run the install file accept the EULA, select. local installation, and I opt out of the ‘User Experience’, when complete it will open the Converter client by default, (as shown).

When the program opens > Convert machine > Type in the name of the machine you are going to convert, and credentials to logon and install the converter agent > Next.

 

Type in the name of the machine you are going to convert, and credentials to logon and install the converter agent.

If you’re going to retire the target machine afterwards, this it does not really matter, but I leave it on the defaults > Yes.

5. Now enter the vSphere/ESX target details that you are going to create the cloned copy on. > Next.

Give the new VM a name, select which folder to place the new VM into > Next. (Note: You may get a certificate warning, if so click ignore).

7. Chose a Cluster/Host > Choose which storage to place the files into. > Next.

8. In the ‘Data to Copy’ section > Edit.

9. Here you can select the NEW sizes for the drive(s) on the cloned machine. > Next.

10. Finish.

11. Depending on the size of the VM it can take a while.

12. Now power of the original, and power on the new machine and TEST IT THOROUGHLY, when you are happy you can delete the source machine.

Resizing (Shrinking) Guest Hard Drives in vSphere 4 (and older)

The following procedure was done with VSphere4 but the process is the same in VI3. Before you start ensure that VMware Converter has been installed on the Virtual Center Server.

 

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VMware Converter – Unable to Deploy Agent

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KB ID 0001345

Problem

I still think P2V conversions are cool, and I’ve been doing them since version 3! It seems though every time I try and do one with the standalone converter though I get this error;

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
Unable to complete installation/uninstallation of converter agent on ‘{target}’

Solution

I always spend five minutes messing with firewalls, checking remote registry services, credentials, and the fix is nearly always the same;

Locate VMware-Converter-Agent.exe in  C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone, copy it to the target machine, and install it manually. Then try the conversion again.

If it gets this far, your problem is solved.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Resizing Windows Volumes / Drives in VMware vSphere / ESX

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KB ID 0000381 

Problem

This article is primarily geared towards making your guest virtual machines hard drives LARGER, If you want to SHRINK or make the drive smaller then see the following article.

Resizing Guest Hard Drives using the VMware Converter

Solution

Re sizing a Guests Hard Drive (Make it larger)

1. On the properties of the VM select the hard disk in question and locate its size.

2. Enter the new size and hit OK. Note: Making the drive size smaller, will have no affect, if you want to do that clone the drive. If the option is “Greyed out” then make sure you DO NOT have any snapshots for this machine.

Re-sizing the guests “Volume” Option 1 – Graphically

Note: To do this using diskpart skip forward to number 10.

3. On the guest > Right click “My Computer” > Manage > Locate “Disk Management”. You will see there’s some free space that’s appeared on the end of the drive, (Click action > Re-scan if you can’t see it).

4. Simply right click the existing volume and select “Extend Volume”.

5. Next.

6. Copy in the extra space you want to assign (all of it probably) > Next.

7. Finish.

8. All the physical drive should now be committed.

9. And just to be sure, look in “My Computer” the drive is now 300 GB.

Re-sizing the guests “Volume” Option 2 – From Command Line with diskpart

10. Start > run > cmd{enter}

[box]diskpart list volume&lt select volume x –Where x is the volume number of the volume to be re sized[/box]

11. The final command is simply extend (This uses ALL the available free space.) Note the volume size in the picture below has jumped up by 40 GB.

Resizing a System (boot) Partition.

Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 can do this quite happily. Older versions of Windows do not like having their system drive re sized, you see the following error if you try,

Error: The volume you have selected may not be extended. Please select another volume and try again.

Option 1 (Connect this drive to another machine)

In a virtual environment this is much simpler, but even if its a real physical hard drive, you can put it into another server and re size it. In an ESX environment simply do the following,

1. Shut down the machine that needs its drive re sizing, then go to another virtual machine’s properties and select add.

2. Hard Disk > Next.

3. Select “Use existing virtual disk” > Next.

4. Browse to the the drive we want to re size > Next.

5. Next.

6. Finish.

7. Now on the VM (Action > Re-scan disks). You will see the drive, and it’s not listed as a system drive, so you can extend it using any of the methods listed above.

8. For example, heres the drive re sized using disport.

9. when you have re sized the drive go back to the properties of the machine you have connected it to, and remove it.

10. OK.

11. Now power on the original VM and drive will be re sized.

Option 2 (Re size the Windows volume with GParted)

Note: This will work for a physical server as well.

1. Here’s our system drive with some nice shiny free space.

 

2. Make sure the server in question can boot from CD, in VMware do the following to boot to the machines BIOS, for a real server watch the screen as the server boots for instructions (Usually F10, F1 or Esc but differs depending on vendor).

3. Locate the boot order and make sure CD/DVD is at the top of the list.

4. Download GParted burn the image to CD, if you are working on a real server (use ImgBurn if your stuck). Or simply point the VM to the iso image, and boot the machine in question from it. At the welcome screen press Enter.

5. Use your arrow and tab keys to select Don’t touch the keymap > OK.

6. Pick a language.

7. We want to launch the GUI (X Windows), so select 0 (Zero).

8. Select Re size/Move > Drag the arrow to include the free space > Re size/Move.

9. Apply

10. Apply.

11. Close.

12. Click GParted > Quit.

13. Exit > Reboot/Shutdown > OK.

14. Remove the CD/ISO and press Enter.

15. The guest will run chkdsk the firs time it boots. This is normal don’t panic.

16. Once booted the volume will be re sized.

Shrink a Windows Partition with diskpart

1. To actually make the volume smaller with diskpart, the initial commands are the same.

2. If you use “shrink” on its own is will shrink the drive as much as it can (I cannot think of any situation where you would do this!). So to shrink the volume by 10 GB simply issue a “shrink minimum 10240”. (The figure in in MB).

 

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Original Article Written 24/01/11