Expanding a VMware VM OS disk in Ubuntu 20 with Workstation 16

  1. The VM needs to be powered off
  2. Back up your VM to usb drive or otherwise
  3. Delete the snapshots associated to the VM
  4. Expand the drive(make sure you have space on the host)
  5. Resize the drive within the Ubuntu vm in this case
Deleting snapshots within workstation 16 Snapshot manager for the VM

Expanding the drive
Once expanded to the size needed save the config and you will need to repartition the drive within the VM to make the space available

Confirm the disk your expanding by running the command lsblk

“lsblk” command shows the 40G disk expanded from 20G. We currently see the “sda5” partition as the largest visible and working used space along with the other sda* partitions.

Resizing the partition

Using the Disks tool(in Ubuntu 20 > Activities >Search > Disks) I had to resize both the Extended and Filesystem partitions. First the Extended partition then the Filesystem. BACKUP!! before doing this. You can resize by clicking the gear icon then choosing “Resize” drag the slider as far as you want to eat into the Free space.
After resizing you have the fully expanding disk in use by your filesystem.

Author: sbracamonte

A technology scientist. Humans living in a biologically driven existence through which I like to find ways the non biological machines can help us live more meaningful lives; stated in my complex of words and imagination.