Increasing the disk space for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0

  Purpose

This article provides steps to increase the disk space of a specific VMDK for the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0. With the introduction of Logical Volume Management (LVM) in vSphere 6.0 and continued support with vSphere 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0, the vCenter Server disks can be dynamically increased.

List of VMDKs for a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 - Size Mount point and Purpose

Note: Resizing the root partition (VMDK1 listed in the KB above) is not supported on 6.5. Please see the vSphere 6.5 Release Notes for more information. Resizing root partition has been added to 6.7 and 7.0.

List of VMDKs/Partitions for a vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 - Size Mount point and Purpose  

List of VMDKs/Partitions for a vCenter Server 7.0 - Size Mount point and Purpose

Note: This KB can be used for the situation like SEAT partition full or any other vCenter appliance partition full.

Resolution 

 

 

To increase the disk space:

• Increase the virtual disk for the vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller virtual machine that is presented either via the vCenter Server or specific ESXi hypservisor managing the Virtual machines.
• Use the Appliance Management CLI or a BASH CLI to expand the partition(s).

Using Appliance Shell

To increase the disk capacity for a specific VMDK on the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0 Platform Services Controller 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0 using the Appliance Shell :

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance using SSH and root credentials.
2. Run this command to verify which disk is experiencing disk capacity issues:

For vCenter Server Appliance 6.5:

com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.storage.stats.list
 

For vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 and 7.0:
com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.storage.stats.list

You see output similar to:
...
7:
Totalinodes: 655360
Usedinodes: 4211
Name: /storage/seat
Totalkbytes: 10181944
Usedkbytes: 9081843

...

3. Using the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, locate the vCenter Server Appliance virtual machine and increase the disk space on the affected virtual disk. For more information, see Increasing the size of a virtual disk (1004047).
   
   Note: If extending VMDK size option is grayed out, the disk may be running on snapshots or the disk may be at the maximum allowed size depending on the block size of the datastore.
    
4. After the virtual disk is increased, return to the SSH session and run this command to automatically expand any logical volumes for which the physical volumes are increased:

For vCenter Server Appliance 6.5:

com.vmware.appliance.version1.system.storage.resize

For vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 and 7.0:
com.vmware.appliance.system.storage.resize

5. Run the command again to confirm that the virtual disk has been successfully grown:

For vCenter Server Appliance 6.5:

com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.storage.stats.list

For vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 and 7.0:
com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.storage.stats.list

 

You see an output similar to:
...
7:
Totalinodes: 786432
Usedinodes: 4211
Name: /storage/seat
Totalkbytes: 12246192
Usedkbytes: 9081843

...

Using BASH Shell

To increase the disk capacity for a specific VMDK on the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0 using the BASH Shell:

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance using SSH and root credentials.
2. Run this command to enable the Bash shell:
   
   shell.set --enabled true
    
3. Type shell and press Enter.
4. Use these commands to verify which disk is experiencing disk capacity issues, then trace which SCSI ID will show in the VM edit settings:
   
   df -h; lsblk; lsscsi
    
5. Using the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, locate the vCenter Server Appliance virtual machine and increase the disk space on the affected virtual disk. For more information, see Increasing the size of a virtual disk (1004047).
    
6. After the virtual disk is increased, return to the SSH session and run this command to automatically expand any logical volumes for which the physical volumes are increased:
   
   /usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/autogrow.sh
    
7. Run this command to confirm that the virtual disk has successfully grown:
   
   df -h

Related Information

This article is explicitly for vSphere 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0. If you are using the vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller Appliances 6.0 or 5.x, see:

• Increasing the disk space for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.0 (2126276)
• Increasing the disk space in vCenter Server Appliance 5.x (2056764)