VMware Fusion fails to create Catalina VM with large HD > 42GB?

Question

Before Catalina I never had issues with resizing macOS HD using VMware Fusion.

I am using:

• VMware Fusion Professional Version 11.5.0 (14634996)
• Host: macOS Mojave 10.14.6

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create new VM, File > New > Create a custom virtual machine or install from disk or image
2. Select Apple OS X > macOS 10.15
3. [x] Create a new virtual disk
4. Select button Customize Settings
5. In the VM Settings > Hard Disk (SATA), set Disk size to 400 GB.
   • Note: VMware does not actually consume physical disk space on your host until needed.
6. Continue with Catalina install
7. When install is completed, the Catalina partition is only 42 GB.

I expected 400 GB.

Answer 1

Solution:

In case it may help others:

1. Open terminal in Catalina VM
2. Use diskutil list to identify the Apple_APFS Container disk
3. Use diskutil apfs resizeContainer to resize Apple_APFS Container disk1 to use all free space

Before

jenkins@Jenkinss-Mac ~ % diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *425.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         42.6 GB    disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +42.6 GB    disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     3.6 GB     disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 83.9 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                529.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 MB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            10.6 GB    disk1s5

Fix: Resize Apple_APFS Container disk1 to use all free space

***** Warning ***** Make sure the disk number and partition (the row number), in my case "s2", matches the diskutil list on your system

diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk0s2 0

After

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *425.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         425.0 GB   disk0s2