This article provides information on not being able to create a VMDK larger than 16TB in VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5.
Issue:
When creating a new virtual machine with a virtual machine disk (VMDK) or adding a VMDK to an existing virtual machine over 16TB in the vSphere client 5.5, you receive the following error:
"The disk capacity entered was not a properly formed number or was out of range. It has been replaced with the nearest acceptable value."
Figure 1: Error Notification
Solution:
The vSphere Client for 5.5 will only allow you to create a maximum of 16TB VMDKs.
Use the web client instead of the vSphere Client.
If you cannot use the web client, then you can do a workaround via command line :
-
Connect to the server via SSH :
-
Navigate to your VM's directory :
- # cd /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<vm>
- Example :
- # cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/testvm
-
Create new VMDK :
- # vmkfstools -c <size> <newvmdk> -a lsilogic -d thin
- Example (creates a 25T thin provisioned vmdk named "testvm2.vmdk" with a lsilogic adapter) :
- # vmkfstools -c 25t testvm2.vmdk -a lsilogic -d thin
-
Add VMDK to existing VM :
- Right click on VM and click on 'Edit Settings'
- Click on the 'Add' button at the top of the window
- Click on 'Hard Disk' and then click on the 'Next' button
- Select the 'Use an existing virtual disk' radial and then click on the 'Next' button
- Select the newly created VM and then click on the 'Next' button
- Click on the 'Next' button
- Click on the 'Finish' button
- Ignore the informational messages
- Click on the 'OK' button to exit out of the VM properties