How to increase the size of a hard drive on VMware ESXi and MS Server 2012

Hard drives that hold varying amounts of data will need to expand as the volume increases.

For example, if a fileserver must accommodate 15 new users that need to add their data to the network you will want to extend the file storage by at least a few Gb. In a virtualised environment running MS Windows server 2012 this can be achieved very easily.

Step 1 – Increase the virtual hard disk capacity in VMware (on your ESXi server)

Step 2 – Use server 2012 to configure and recognise the extra space.

Following these steps will expand your current drive and you will not lose data.

Step 1 – Increase the size in VMware

1. Log into the Vmware vSphere client
2. Go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters
3. Power down the server which requires increased disk space
4. In the left hand server list, right click the server > Go to Edit settings
5. Highlight the Hard disk you wish to increase
6. Under ‘Disk Provisioning’ increase the Provisioned size to your requirements.
7. Click OK and start the virtual machine (VM)

Step 2 – Expand/extend the disk size in Windows Server 2012

1. Log onto your server
2. Go to Computer Management > Disk Management
3. You will now see the existing drive and now some extra ‘Unallocated space’ next to it.
4. Right click on the existing drive and select ‘Extend Volume..’. The extend volume wizard will appear with the maximum disk space selected by default. Click Next
5. The wizard will then apply the change and expand the volume.

When you return to the Computer Management interface you will see that your original drive has increased as required.