Virtual Machines - managing virtual drives

From time to time I have to expand the disks on my virtual machines. Or convert disks from preallocated 9+GBs into sets of 2GB files (so they fit in FAT32 USB sticks, for example). I found this tool vmware-vdiskmanager to be the best way to manage these tasks, but it does not come bundled with VMWare Player. It does come, however, in the also free-as-in-beer VMWare Server. So if you need it, download and install VMWare Server here so you can use the examples below.

# VMware Virtual Disk Manager Utility (vmware-vdiskmanager.exe):
- Documentation: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_disk_manager_running.html

# Examples:

- Convert existing virtual disk from fixed preallocated size to growable, split into 2GB files (trust me, it helps wonders to set all your virtual disks this way to avoid future headaches):

C:\"Program Files"\VMware\"VMware Server"\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r data.vmdk -t 1 data-1.vmdk

- Defragment existing virtual disk (unless you have a SSD you should do this every now and then both in the VM and in the host OS):

C:\"Program Files"\VMware\"VMware Server"\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -d data.vmdk

- Shrink virtual disk:

C:\"Program Files"\VMware\"VMware Server"\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -k data.vmdk

- Expand virtual disk:

C:\"Program Files"\VMware\"VMware Server"\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -x 32GB data.vmdk

Note: when you expand an already partitioned virtual disk it will not show immediately the new size when you boot your virtual machine. However, now you can use tools inside the virtual machine to expand the partition so the operating system can see and use it. In Linux, for example, you can do this:

df <- run this to list all mounted partitions
Filesystem ... Mounted on
/dev/sda1 ... /
/dev/sdb1 ... /data <- this is the partition I want to expand

Note: the block below worked for me, but as always, MAKE BACKUPS OF EVERYTHING if you don't want to risk losing your precious data. Or don't backup, but don't blame me if you mess up and lose your whole filesystem...

login as root and run these commands:
umount /dev/sdb1

fdisk -l /dev/sdb - write down the start and end cylinders for the target partition

fdisk /dev/sdb

in fdisk use the [d] command to delete the partition - yeah, I know, this is scary, but if you REALLY took the time to backup your virtual machine then go ahead; if everything works your data will not be lost in fdisk

use the [n] command to add a new primary partition, using the same partition number and start cylinder, but use the default value for end cylinder for it to use all the space you made available in fdisk

use the [w] command to write the partition table to the disk and exit - if it asks you to restart your server, do that before proceeding, otherwise keep going

login as root again and run these commands:

e2fsck -f /dev/sdb1

resize2fs /dev/sdb1

mount /dev/sdb1

df -h

If everything worked as planned you should now have a bigger partition, and all your precious data should still be there. If something didn't work, well, you still have your backups, right? RIGHT? ;D