Sometimes we need more disk space on the servers, if the server is a physical machine then we need to add more physical disks to get the more space but if the server is a virtual machine (VM) then we can easily add the disks from the data store to virtual machine (VM). If the data store does not have sufficient space which is required then we need to add more physical disks to the physical server to increase the size of the data store.
We can also add the disks from the SAN storage to the virtual machine (VM) through Raw Device Mapping which we will see in the next post.
Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
Follow the steps given below to add a new hard disk to a virtual machine (VM):
- Login to VMware vSphere Client and right-click on the VM and go to the edit settings option
- Click on the Add… button
- Select the Hard Disk option and click on the Next button
- Select the Create a new virtual disk option and click on next
- Enter the size of the disk, select the provisioning, select the location store with the virtual machine and click on the Next button
- Virtual device node, let be it default and click on Next button
- Verify the details and click on the Finish button.
- Hard disk has been added to the virtual machine, now click on the OK button.
Format the Newly Added Hard Disk
We have added the new hard disk to a windows virtual machine now we need to initialise and format to the hard disk.
- Log in to the Windows VM and open the Device Manager, to open the device manager right click on the my compute and click on the manage option. It will ask you to initialize the disk, and click on the OK button.
- Go to the Storage option and click on Disk Management
- Here you will see the newly added hard disk as an unallocated volume
- Right-click on the unallocated volume and choose the option New Simple Volume.
- Click on the Next button.
- Enter the size of the volume which you want to create and click on the Next button.
- Assign a letter to the drive and click on the Next button
- Select the File System, enter the Volume Label, select the format option and click on the Next button
- Verify the details and click on the Finish button.
Now a new hard disk added to the windows VM which you can see by opening the My Computer.