VMware ESX and vmdks larger than 256gb

News to me! if you want to create a vmdk larger than 256 gb, you need to blow away the datastore and re-create it with a larger block size!

  1. Move everything off the datastore.
  2. Under the configuration tab, Right click and delete the store
  3. Click add storage and it will find the unused disk
  4. and when Creating the new datastore, change the block size to accommodate the largest vmdk you want to create:
    • 1M =256gb, 2M=512gb, 4M=1T,8M=2T

2 Responses to VMware ESX and vmdks larger than 256gb

  1. Stijn July 22, 2011 at 2:53 pm #

    Dude, you’re a life saver! I was transferring a big vmdk (around 440 GB (i know big)) and it kept on failing around 50%..
    Thanx!

  2. jbmurphy July 22, 2011 at 4:44 pm #

    Thanks for leaving a comment! I like it when I can help!