Skip to main content
epefti
Staff
epefti
Staff
February 9, 2026

Technical Tip: Resizing disk space on FortiClient EMS v7.4.5 installed on VMWare ESX

  • February 9, 2026
  • 0 replies
  • 403 views
Description

 

This article describes the first recommended steps on FortiClient EMS server v7.4.5 installed as a virtual appliance via OVA template on VMWare ESX. Template allocates only 80GB with a single disk, and this space is not enough for scenarios with a high number of managed endpoints, as the available space quickly goes down due to logging. 

 

Scope

 

FortiClient EMS server version 7.4.5 deployed from OVA template.

 

Solution

 

The recent software release of FortiClient EMS server, deployed as an OVA template, allocates only 80GB of disk space to the only partition. This behavior cannot be changed due to the nature of virtual appliance deployment via the template. Below is the screenshot taken during the virtual appliance installation, where the size of the disk for thick provisioning is listed as 80GB:

 

image_2026-02-07_211158279.png

 

Once the virtual machine is installed, the disk space allocated to it can be checked via 'Edit Settings':

 

image_2026-02-07_211433939.png

 

This can also be confirmed by running FortiClient EMS commands via CLI. The screenshot below shows the size of the SDA disk of 78GB, which is an equivalent of 80GB calculated by VMWare ESX. Execute the command 'execute lvm info' to see the current disk and volume size:

 

image_2026-02-07_212211976.png

 

It is highly recommended to allocate more storage to this virtual appliance, and it could be done on the level of VMWare ESX host where this virtual appliance is deployed. Power down this virtual appliance and increase the size of the disk to 300GB as an example, or even something larger if storage on the VMWare host allows it:

 

image_2026-02-07_212523365.png

 

Once the virtual appliance is booted and operational, check the available disk space via FortiClient EMS CLI tools by running the 'execute lvm info' command. It will show the initially allocated space together with the available space on the partition that can be expanded:

 

image_2026-02-07_212634515.png

 

Do these two steps to expand the partition and volume size as shown below:

  1. Expand the disk with the command 'execute lvm expand-disk --disk.name sda'.

    image_2026-02-07_212929533.png

 

  1. Expand the logical disk volume to maximum with the command 'execute lvm expand-volume --grow.free':

 

image_2026-02-07_213357170.png

 

Verify the total and available disk space on the server by running 'system get info'. It will show the size of the logical disk volume increased to 294GB that will be fully available to the server.

 

image_2026-02-07_213607171.png

 

Related document:
Adding and expanding disks on EMS VMs 

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement