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Table Of Contents
Upgrade VMFS3 Datastores to VMFS5 in the vSphere Client
VMFS5 is a new version of the VMware cluster file system that provides performance and scalability
improvements.
Prerequisites
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Open a vSphere Client connection to a vCenter Server.
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If you use a VMFS2 datastore, you must first upgrade it to VMFS3. Follow the instructions in “Upgrade
VMFS2 Datastores to VMFS3,” on page 327.
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All hosts accessing the datastore must support VMFS5.
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Verify that the volume to be upgraded has at least 2MB of free blocks available and 1 free file
descriptor.
Procedure
1 Log in to the vSphere Client, and select a host from the inventory panel.
2 Click the Configuration tab and click Storage.
3 Select the VMFS3 datastore.
4 Click Upgrade to VMFS5.
A warning message about host version support appears.
5 Click OK to start the upgrade.
The task Upgrade VMFS appears in the Recent Tasks list.
6 Perform a rescan on all hosts that are associated with the datastore.
Increase VMFS Datastore Capacity in the vSphere Client
When you need to create virtual machines on a datastore, or when the virtual machines running on a
datastore require more space, you can dynamically increase the capacity of a VMFS datastore.
Use one of the following methods to increase a VMFS datastore:
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Add a new extent. An extent is a partition on a storage device. You can add up to 32 extents of the same
storage type to an existing VMFS datastore. The spanned VMFS datastore can use any or all of its
extents at any time. It does not need to fill up a particular extent before using the next one.
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Grow an extent in an existing VMFS datastore, so that it fills the available adjacent capacity. Only
extents with free space immediately after them are expandable.
NOTE If a shared datastore has powered on virtual machines and becomes 100% full, you can increase the
datastore's capacity only from the host with which the powered on virtual machines are registered.
Prerequisites
Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system.
Required privilege: Host.Configuration.Storage Partition Configuration
Procedure
1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select a host from the Inventory panel.
2 Click the Configuration tab and click Storage.
3 From the Datastores view, select the datastore to increase and click Properties.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client
328 VMware, Inc.