Why do Windows C drives get full in virtual disks?
A real life experience posted by a member in the VMware vCenter Server Communities yesterday (Feb 8, 2010):
I have installed vc with sql 2005 express, now my vCenter server c:\ is almost full
is it possible to move my vCenter database to another drive
The solution recommended by an expert is:
you can install a new server with more space and migrate the data as following.
link to kb post
But you can use also tolls like gparted or dell_expart to incrase your space.
While this recommendation is consistent with the perceived state of the art, it does have the following impact:
It is not going to affect the running VMs and also ESX but you/VSC may see a disconnect for a while.
Another member recommends a different approach
A different approach would be to extend the c-drive.
We have recently released a tool (fatVM) to make this easy (or easier).
It creates the extended VM in a new directory (with the original as parent). Does not touch the original files. Is able to extend most VM in a couple of minutes.
Here is the link: http://www.gudgud.com/fatvm
A third member is contemplating a similar move:
I have a 4 host ESX 3.5U4 system.My VCenter is pointing to an external SQL server. I am about to upgrade to vSphere and want to have the SQL running on on the VCenter server itself – most likely using SQL Express. I have the same concern about space.
You must have noticed the pattern that is emerging. Your C:drive can get full when you are using a database system, or a log aggregation server, within a VM that has a pre-allocated disk and size of the data is growing. As a best practice, review your apps for potential of data growth before pre-allocating the size of the VM.
