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[Solved] Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 21. Jan 2017, 03:44
by Vilnth
Hey guys! New to VirtualBox, was getting pretty frustrated trying to resize a virtual disk using the vboxmanageutility and wondering if I am doing something wrong or if this might be a bug.

Host: Windows 10 Pro (x64)
Guest: Windows Server 2016
Virtualbox: 5.1.14 r112924 (Qt5.6.2)

Basically, I had a 20GB dynamic .vhd file that was filling up rather quickly, so I wanted to increase the size to 30GB. However, I quickly ran into a problem where the modifymedium command would immediately generate an error and not complete. This persisted across normal and admin command prompts, and survived both a host restart and a repair reinstall of Virtualbox. Eventually, I did achieve the desired result with in the following sequence:

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage modifymedium C:\_dev\vm\Magus\Magus.vdi --resize 30720
VBoxManage.exe: error: Error: Attempt to resize the medium from 0.0 MB to 30720.0 MB. Use --resizebyte if this is intended!

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage modifymedium C:\_dev\vm\Magus\Magus.vdi --resizebyte 30720000000
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Note: The second operation not exactly the 30 GB I had envisioned, but I was frustrated and just wanted to throw enough 0's after my original input to pass as a parameter. Thankfully, it was successful!

Anyway, I was thinking maybe the sanity check that got added to the --resize flag in the latest available version might be getting triggered incorrectly? Based on the current documentation, I'm not seeing what else might be going on with my input...

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 21. Jan 2017, 12:27
by mpack
It certainly does look like a bug with the new sanity check feature. For some reason it seems to think that the old VHD is 0MB in size.

Speaking of which: frankly, you shouldn't be using VHD, as that is an alien format. IMHO if you choose VHD then my sympathies for the many things that can go wrong are somewhat limited.
 Edit:  Belay that. I made the mistake of accepting what you wrote, and not noticing that the filename contradicted you. You said you had a .vhd, the command line filename you provided says .vdi. Which is it? Because if it's a VHD with a .VDI extension then that is certainly asking for trouble.

p.s. FYI, 30GB is 30*(1024^3)==32212254720 bytes. 

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 21. Jan 2017, 19:34
by Vilnth
My bad, the original disk attached to my VM was a VHD, but I had cloned it to a VDI to test the same command and it still wasn't working.

Good catch though! My first few guests were created as VHD for portability, to possibly test with Hyper V alongside Virtual Box. At this point though, due to storage issues I've pretty much cloned and converted everything to VDI.

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 23. Jan 2017, 19:03
by frank
I would like to see the output of

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VBoxManage showhdinfo C:\_dev\vm\Magus\Magus.vdi
.

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 23. Jan 2017, 19:07
by mpack
Hi Frank, if you wanted to see the disk size, note that the OP says in his first post that he successfully used --resizebytes, so the drive size will be 30GB (ish). No easy way to know what it was before. Maybe the other occurrence would provide better info.

@Vilith: please don't let my post stop you from providing the info Frank is asking for. I imagine it would still be nice to see proof of the container format.

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 25. Jan 2017, 18:56
by Vilnth
The original disk (.VHD) had a size of 20GB when it was created through the VirtualBox GUI.

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C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage showhdinfo C:\_dev\vm\Magus\Magus.vdi
UUID:           e03bfb6b-4324-4893-9842-7b5ffbd71e81
Parent UUID:    base
State:          created
Type:           normal (base)
Location:       C:\_dev\vm\Magus\Magus.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Format variant: dynamic default
Capacity:       29296 MBytes
Size on disk:   28913 MBytes
Encryption:     disabled
In use by VMs:  Magus (UUID: 6a32ec9b-d52a-4eab-a58c-a18297daf079)

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 27. Jan 2017, 12:29
by Knoll42
Any update on this at all please? I have exactly the same issue.

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E:\KCI-VBOX-WK8VM\KCI-VBOX-W2K8>VBoxManage showhdinfo E:\KCI-VBOX-WK8VM\KCI-W2K8\KCI-VBOX-W2K8.vdi
UUID:           5f75a303-1689-4ea3-960d-478fdd3b1578
Parent UUID:    base
State:          created
Type:           normal (base)
Location:       E:\KCI-VBOX-WK8VM\KCI-VBOX-W2K8\KCI-VBOX-W2K8.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Format variant: dynamic default
Capacity:       53480 MBytes
Size on disk:   53118 MBytes
Encryption:     disabled
In use by VMs:  KCI-VBOX-W2K8 (UUID: 96368daa-3e60-44f1-b9f2-c01376d0ea30)

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 27. Jan 2017, 13:43
by socratis
@Knoll42
Please define "I have exactly the same issue". What are the exact command input and output?

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 27. Jan 2017, 17:09
by mpack
If you have the OPs problem then the OP's first post already documents the workaround: use "--resizebytes" until there is a new maintenance release, which will probably happen in a month or so.

The good news is that the bug is reported as fixed in ticket #16311 (correct from VBox 5.1.16).

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 23. Feb 2017, 00:32
by stefgosselin
Same issue here. Any idea when next release is out that fixes this?

Thanks!

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 23. Feb 2017, 00:37
by socratis
Unless you're a VirtualBox developer, nobody knows. Post a comment to the ticket if you want to get notifications. Plus, you know about the "--resizebytes" workaround, right?

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 3. Mar 2017, 06:26
by ashm314
I have the same issue.
I've tried and got error message
a) --resize 33792
>> VBoxManage.exe: error: Error: Attempt to resize the medium from 0.0 MB to 33792.0 MB.
Use --resizebyte if this is intended!
b) --resizebyte 34603008
>> VBoxManage.exe: error: Resize medium operation for this format is not implemented yet!

my environment:
Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) version 1607, Build 14393.693
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
VirtualBox : 5.1.14 r112924 (Qt5.6.2)

I'm afraid it's a bug in VirtualBox.
With the older version of VirtualBox, I could resize the size of virtual machines. I cannot remember their version...

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 3. Mar 2017, 07:57
by socratis
ashm314 wrote:I'm afraid it's a bug in VirtualBox.
You didn't read the thread, did you? At all...
mpack wrote:It certainly does look like a bug with the new sanity check feature.
mpack wrote:The good news is that the bug is reported as fixed in ticket #16311.
socratis wrote:you know about the "--resizebytes" workaround, right?

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 3. Mar 2017, 10:30
by ashm314
Your guess is right. I have not read all threads thoroughly.

I'm a software developer, and published a work that can modify VM's storage size with GUI, without command line.
And a user told me he could not resize(expand) the storage size, and I've just noticed the issue.

Sorry, if my thread would be some noise to you.

Re: Vboxmanage modifymedium: --resize bug?

Posted: 3. Mar 2017, 10:39
by socratis
ashm314 wrote:I'm a software developer, and published a work that can modify VM's storage size with GUI, without command line.
That sounds interesting... Is there a link or a website? Since you're new, the spam filters won't let you post a URL, so if you can, obfuscate it, like "www . virtualbox . org /wiki/Downloads".