3

I have an Exchange server at a remote office that has a database partition that has grown considerably. It is running on VMWare vsphere 4.1.

Normally on most VMs I would shut down the VM, and increase the disk space, then expand the disk.

But the question is...can I do this with a partition that has Exchange MDB files on it (safely)?

ewwhite
  • 197,159
  • 92
  • 443
  • 809
TheCleaner
  • 32,627
  • 26
  • 132
  • 191

1 Answers1

6

Yes, you can do this on the fly...

Let's assume your Exchange DB is on a dedicated partition... (if Exchange is on C:, there's a different approach that will require downtime)

You can expand the volume size from the vSphere client. That additional space will be recognized immediately in the Windows Server Manager... Server Manager -> Storage -> Disk Management

Grow your volume from that point using the unused space.

I've done this live on Exchange log and database volumes (oops).

ewwhite
  • 197,159
  • 92
  • 443
  • 809
  • Yes, dedicated VMdisk partition (not dedicated LUN) without the OS/boot partition. OK, remind me again on expanding the volume. Just use diskpart as always or does Disk Management in 2008 R2 allow me to simply right click and expand on the fly while Exchange is in use? – TheCleaner Feb 14 '13 at 15:46
  • Right-click and expand while in use. – ewwhite Feb 14 '13 at 15:56
  • thanks...found this to corroborate your answer: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvradmin/thread/2a3f0e2f-d36f-4cbd-9f4c-a19114c3a692 – TheCleaner Feb 14 '13 at 15:57