I have 4 TB of Physical space but can only seem to make a VMFS of 90 GB?
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How are you trying to make the VMFS? What version of esxi? What error do you get? Is the storage local or SAN?– StevenFeb 23, 2011 at 17:31
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Basically I'm doing this: thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/vmware-add-datastore I don't get any errors, yes it is local storage. It's just when I create a new vmfs, even with "maximum size" checked, it doesn't use all 4TB. If I try to increase the size of the VMFS or create a new VMFS the "select disk/lun" box is blank.– EarlsFeb 23, 2011 at 17:38
2 Answers
VMFS 3, being LVM-based, cannot properly deal with partitions of >2TB. Carve up your array into <2TB blocks (i.e. 2 x 2TB in this case), present them to your host and either create two VMFS datastores or one with two extents - I'd create two by the way.
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Carve up my... RAID array? Correct? I have six physical disks of 1430272 MB each with RAID options of 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and 50. Please advise.– EarlsFeb 23, 2011 at 18:25
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Ok, so you have 6 x 1.5TB disks, obviously you don't mention what kind of disk controller you have but essentially you'll be creating an array of these using whichever of the RAID modes you like, then presenting that array as multiple logical disks to the machine, these logical disks need to be less than 2TB each or ESX won't like it. Maybe come back when you know your controller details.– Chopper3Feb 23, 2011 at 18:59
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PERC 6/i Integrated Bus Expandable RAID Controller v1.21.02-0528 on a PowerEdge 2900. I apologize for not providing the complete information up-front, I'm still learning what is important. In that regard, your input on the RAID mode to use would be appreciated. I was considering RAID 10, but I'm ignorant of how (or even if) the physical disks should be divided up between virtual disks. Thanks.– EarlsFeb 23, 2011 at 19:27
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Well RAID 10 is fast and reliable but it does reduce your available storage by 50%, i.e. from 9TB raw to 4.5TB after R10, if that's enough for you then great. As for how to configure your actual controller, well here's a link to the manual, pay particular attention to the sections starting on pages 104 and 85 (sorry I can't help more right now, got a startlingly high-level meeting, come back if you want more help), link: support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/PERC6/en/PDF/…– Chopper3Feb 23, 2011 at 20:08
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It just seems to me that no configuration disk groups / virtual disks of six physical 1.5TB disks are going to give me <2TB volumes using RAID10... Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding this concept. I've RTFM top to bottom and checked out every option in the controller BIOS configuration - either I'm missing a key concept or it can't be done. Another user states "I re-configured my RAID storage to create 3 x 2TB luns." He created three RAID1 VDs, I'm assuming?– EarlsFeb 24, 2011 at 14:59
ESX/ESXi has a limit of 2TB VMFS volumes. What you can do is create a 2TB VMFS extend and then extend it to include the other space if you want all 4TB in one volume or you can break it up into smaller chunks. Having multiple VMFS volumes will allow you to "defrag" the VMDKs by migrating them between the datastores.
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I think it's actually 2TB - 512 bytes. If you try to create a datastore thats a full 2TB, it will not recognize it. Feb 23, 2011 at 23:18
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