Add hard disk to VMware CentOS 7 VM

There are two easy steps to add a hard disk for a VMware CentOS 7 VM.

1. Assign a new hard disk in VMware vSphere
2. Configure the new hard disk in CentOS

Assign hard disk in vSphere

1. In VMware vSphere, right click on the VM and select "Edit Settings..."
   

2. In the "New device:" section, select "SCSI Controller", and click the "OK" button. Note, there is a hard limit of 4 SCSI Controllers per VM.
   

3. Right click "Edit Settings..." again and select "New Hard Disk"
   

4. Input the byte size of the new hard disk (in this example, 5 GB). In the "Virtual Device Node" section, assign the new SCSI controller number. Click the "OK" button.
   

Configure new hard disk in CentOS

• SSH into the CentOS VM and sudo to root
  sudo su -
  

• List the block device to see the newly assigned vSphere hard disk.
  lsblk
  
  If you do not see the vSphere hard disk, force a rescan
  

for host in $(ls -1d /sys/class/scsi_host/*); do echo "- - -" > ${host}/scan ; done
for device in $(ls -1d /sys/class/scsi_disk/*); do echo "1" > ${device}/device/rescan ; done

• Format the disk partition. Get the device name from the previous lsblk output
  fdisk /dev/sdb
  See the screenshot for the options you should pick
  n (new partition)
  p (primary)
  (Press ENTER) (Use default partition number)
  (Press ENTER) (Use default first sector)
  (Press ENTER) (Use default last sector)

  t (change the partition type)
  8e (Linux LVM)

  w (write)

  
  

• List the block device again to display the new disk partition /dev/sdb1
  
  

• Initialize the physical volume
  pvcreate /dev/sdb1
  pvs (to display the new physical volume)
  
  

• Create the volume group
  vgcreate vgBackup /dev/sdb1 (vgBackup is just an name for this example. The volume group name can be whatever you want)
  vgs (to display the volume group)
  

• Create the logical volume for the volume group
  lvcreate -n lvBackup -l +100%FREE vgBackup (lvBackup is just an name for this example. The logical volume name can be whatever you want)
  lvs (to display the logical volume)
  
  

• Construct an XFS filesystem on the new logical volume
  mkfs.xfs /dev/vgBackup/lvBackup
  
  

• Mount a Unix directory to the logical volume
  Edit the text file /etc/fstab and add the line below:
  /dev/vgBackup/lvBackup /backup xfs defaults 1 2

  mkdir -p /backup
  mount /backup
  df -h (to display the new directory)
  
  

To learn more about Unix Logical Volumes, go to official RedHat LVM docs