Recreate new datastore on an existing ESX server without reinstalling the server.
First move the current servers from the ESX server.
This we had to do due probables after adding new harddrives to the raid array and we had expended this RAID set. In VMware we couldn’t add the new data to the existing datastore. We have looked for an other solution, but that didn’t work so this made us force to use this workaround.
When you have moved the servers go to Configuration > Storage > right click on The storage you want to delete and click on Unmount
After unmounting the datastore you can delete the datastore.
Go to Putty and logon via SSH to the system ( when you didn’t have SSH enabled, go to the security settings of ESX and start the SSH server )
use Fdisk –l to see the volumes ( it is possible that this command can’t be used )
Check which device has the most disk space available.
Go back to the Vmware Vsphere client.
Unmount the Datastore you want to recreate.
After unmounting delete the Datastore.
Click on add Storage
Click on Disk/LUN > Next
Select the disk you want to add ( check the capacity of the volume if it’s correct that the volume will be this large )
Select VMFS-5 ( when you use VMware ESXi5 ) and click on Next
Select use all available partitions and click on next ( ignore the warning if you are sure there isn’t an OS installed on this disk )
Enter a name for the Datastore and click on next.
Select the maximum space you have for the Datastore. And click on Next.
Check the settings if they are correct. When they are correct click on Finish.
Now the new datastore has the maximum size you wanted to have for your disk.