VmWare setup,, 2TB limit ROUND #2
Ok, Ok , Ok,, I know that I posted things should have been up and running by now,, but they weren't, go figure...
Once I was done initializing my scsi drives again into a raid 5 set at 2048 GB, this still was not working correctly and I again was getting an error when trying to setup a datastore, this time ERROR DURING THE CONFIGURATION OF THE HOST: FAILED TO GET DISK PARTITION INFORMATION, had the VmWare GODS again tried to smite me ???? (likin that word smite)... NO.
In my recent google travels and a big thanks to Victor on a support call, I did come to the conclusion as follows:
The VmWare has to be LOWER than 2 TB limit, so again I went back to the preverbial IT drawing board and start over. As before, I am running a Dell PowerEdge R710 server, with (2) Intel Xeon 5650 processors and 32 gig ram, I have (6) 600 scsi 10k rpm drives attached to a Perc 710 scsi controller.
Vmware version ESXi 4.0.0 Build 244038, and this is installed and running from an embedded SD card in the server, and also set to boot from this device in bios.
OK,, Here we go...
First off, when booting the server, I hit CNTRL, R to get into the Perc controller config. I had everything set as RAID 5 with a hot spare, but I selected the VD and then F2, Delete VD, once done, I then selected the VD and F2, Create VD, once in this screen, hit enter and I chose RAID 6, (arrow down once) and then used the "space bar" to select all the drives for my RAID 6 config. On the SIZE window, this was then set to 2000.00 GB, NOT 2048.00 as before, this will create a VD at 1.95 TB with 233.50 GB left over, I then selected Advanced Options, Set to Adaptive Read Ahead, and also INITIALIZE option was selected, this will go MUCH faster in the background and not have to wait hours until finished, Then click on OK to set the VD, you can scroll down from the main screen and see the additional storage space now of 233.50 GB, highlight this, F2 and Create VD, you will not be able to change much now, just the VD ID and Initialize option again, also don't forget to set the Adaptive Read Ahead for this VD as well..
I did set the VD ID to 0 on the 1.95 TB and set VD ID to 1 on the 233.50 GB.
Now these should both be registered as VD 0 and VD 1 with the correct sizes in them.
I already have the Vmware Vsphere client installed on my computer and will not go over that install here... safe to say,, it is not that hard to do once the VmWare Hypervisor is running, just open a web browser to the IP address you have set on this and download it, install,, good to go...
Open up this program, and if you are at the Home, you will see Inventory, Roles, System Logs, select Inventory and this will display information on the host you are connected too. Select the configuration tab, you will see something like, No Datastore has been configure,,, blah blah blah,
Click on Create Datastore, my selection was Disk / Lun since my hard drives were local to the server, this should see both partitions now, select the 1.95 TB, next, it will ask for a name,, input whatever you need there, next, next, finish. You should now have a datastore displaying Capacity, Free space, type, etc.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE EXTRA 233.50 ???
Click on the datastore so this is highlighted, then right click, Properies, and you will see a tab for Increase,, select this. Go through the next windows and there will be the option to highlight your remaining VD1 that was setup from the controller, click on next, next, finish. When completed you should have something like 2.1 TB usable. AND THERE YOU GO !!!!
I have typed most of this from memory but the steps are pretty much the same, just remember that the VMWare does not "see" any partitions over the 2 TB.
OH,, forgot,, when setting the datastore size, you can select the actual file size and block size.. there are many blogs, posts, etc on how to set this up, but you need to take into account how many virtual servers you are going to run on the host, and the sizes of each of these, plus add 20% for your snapshots and growth over time. So if you are going to have server1 at like 800 gigs for data storage, print, AD, DNS, whatever, and then server2 at 200 gigs and server 3 at 200 gigs, you will need to select the appropriate size for file and block.
Anywho,, that should just about wrap things up..
That's my story and I'm stickin to it.
biz
Once I was done initializing my scsi drives again into a raid 5 set at 2048 GB, this still was not working correctly and I again was getting an error when trying to setup a datastore, this time ERROR DURING THE CONFIGURATION OF THE HOST: FAILED TO GET DISK PARTITION INFORMATION, had the VmWare GODS again tried to smite me ???? (likin that word smite)... NO.
In my recent google travels and a big thanks to Victor on a support call, I did come to the conclusion as follows:
The VmWare has to be LOWER than 2 TB limit, so again I went back to the preverbial IT drawing board and start over. As before, I am running a Dell PowerEdge R710 server, with (2) Intel Xeon 5650 processors and 32 gig ram, I have (6) 600 scsi 10k rpm drives attached to a Perc 710 scsi controller.
Vmware version ESXi 4.0.0 Build 244038, and this is installed and running from an embedded SD card in the server, and also set to boot from this device in bios.
OK,, Here we go...
First off, when booting the server, I hit CNTRL, R to get into the Perc controller config. I had everything set as RAID 5 with a hot spare, but I selected the VD and then F2, Delete VD, once done, I then selected the VD and F2, Create VD, once in this screen, hit enter and I chose RAID 6, (arrow down once) and then used the "space bar" to select all the drives for my RAID 6 config. On the SIZE window, this was then set to 2000.00 GB, NOT 2048.00 as before, this will create a VD at 1.95 TB with 233.50 GB left over, I then selected Advanced Options, Set to Adaptive Read Ahead, and also INITIALIZE option was selected, this will go MUCH faster in the background and not have to wait hours until finished, Then click on OK to set the VD, you can scroll down from the main screen and see the additional storage space now of 233.50 GB, highlight this, F2 and Create VD, you will not be able to change much now, just the VD ID and Initialize option again, also don't forget to set the Adaptive Read Ahead for this VD as well..
I did set the VD ID to 0 on the 1.95 TB and set VD ID to 1 on the 233.50 GB.
Now these should both be registered as VD 0 and VD 1 with the correct sizes in them.
I already have the Vmware Vsphere client installed on my computer and will not go over that install here... safe to say,, it is not that hard to do once the VmWare Hypervisor is running, just open a web browser to the IP address you have set on this and download it, install,, good to go...
Open up this program, and if you are at the Home, you will see Inventory, Roles, System Logs, select Inventory and this will display information on the host you are connected too. Select the configuration tab, you will see something like, No Datastore has been configure,,, blah blah blah,
Click on Create Datastore, my selection was Disk / Lun since my hard drives were local to the server, this should see both partitions now, select the 1.95 TB, next, it will ask for a name,, input whatever you need there, next, next, finish. You should now have a datastore displaying Capacity, Free space, type, etc.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE EXTRA 233.50 ???
Click on the datastore so this is highlighted, then right click, Properies, and you will see a tab for Increase,, select this. Go through the next windows and there will be the option to highlight your remaining VD1 that was setup from the controller, click on next, next, finish. When completed you should have something like 2.1 TB usable. AND THERE YOU GO !!!!
I have typed most of this from memory but the steps are pretty much the same, just remember that the VMWare does not "see" any partitions over the 2 TB.
OH,, forgot,, when setting the datastore size, you can select the actual file size and block size.. there are many blogs, posts, etc on how to set this up, but you need to take into account how many virtual servers you are going to run on the host, and the sizes of each of these, plus add 20% for your snapshots and growth over time. So if you are going to have server1 at like 800 gigs for data storage, print, AD, DNS, whatever, and then server2 at 200 gigs and server 3 at 200 gigs, you will need to select the appropriate size for file and block.
Anywho,, that should just about wrap things up..
That's my story and I'm stickin to it.
biz
posted by Dan Davis at 11:14 AM
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