[Step-by-Step Guide] Extending Storage Space in Running Linux VM on vmware (CentOS or RedHat)

Few weeks back I noticed that one of the servers on vmware environment which I am maintaining will soon needs a storage expansion due to its fast growing behavior. This is how I extend its storage space.

Login to vmware environment, and take a complete backup of the VM prior to next steps.
Shutdown all the internal services and then shutdown(power off) the VM.
Go to "edit settings" of the powered off VM.
Change the hard disk space as you required on the selected hard disk and save.
Power on the VM.
Now login to the VMs console as root.
Enter command "fdisk -l"

"fdisk -l" will display all the disk partitions of the VM. You can now check and confirm new size of the partition after the changes done on point "4"

Go though the response and find out the disk name which we need to expand with added space. It will be something like "/dev/sda: XXGB". Let's say the disk you want to expand is /dev/sda.
Now enter command "fdisk /dev/sda"

"fdisk <diskName>" will open up a console where you can enter all the fdisk commands.

Enter "p" -- View partition table
Enter "n" -- Create new partition
Enter "p" -- To make new partition a primary one
Enter the default partition number you see in the termial. For me it's 3.
Press enter 2 times to confirm systems default values for block info.
Enter "t" -- Change partition ID
Enter <PartitionID>. Mine is 3 (the newly created).
Enter "8e" -- Set the partition type to Linux LVM
Enter "w" -- Save the changes.
Enter "reboot" to reboot the VM to apply the changes made to the partition table.
Open up a terminal as root again
Enter command "fdisk -l" again. Now you can see the newly created partition on the partition table. Mine is /dev/sda3.
Issue "pvcreate /dev/sda3" command to the newly created partition. This will initiate new partition as a physical volume.
Now enter "vgdisplay" command and get the VG (volume group) name.
Enter "vgextend <VGname> /dev/sda3" to extend the VG with new valume.
Enter "df -h" and find out which mount point you want to extend with newly added partition. For me, I want to extend root "/" mount point and its file system name is "/dev/mapper/vg-root"
Now extend the logical volume. "lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/vg-root" (NOTE: Change the command according to your environment details taken from "df -h" command)
Now we have to expand the "ext3" file system.
If on Red Hat: "ext2online /dev/mapper/vg-root"
If on CentOs: "resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/vg-root"
All Done. Now check and confirm the changes using "df -h".