Whenever I do a beta test of a product / OS the first thing I do is check if all the features / commands that I used with the previous version still exist. When I did an “esxcfg- tab tab” on the next version of ESX one thing stood out, esxcfg-vmhbadevs was gone. I use this command a lot when investigating SAN problems, same goes for esxcfg-mpath by the way. Both print really valuable information that I usually copy & paste for keeping track of changes.
With the upcoming version of ESX(vSphere) a new command will be introduced which replaces esxcfg-vmhbadevs: esxcfg-scsidevs.
This new command has a couple of extra command line options and prints more detail than ever before, of which -l is probably the most useful. Using “esxcfg-scsidevs -l” results in:
mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0 Device Type: Direct-Access Size: 6144 MB Display Name: Local VMware, Disk (mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0) Plugin: NMP Console Device: /dev/sda Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0 Vendor: VMware, Model: VMware Virtual S Revis: 1.0 SCSI Level: 2 Is Pseudo: false Status: on Is RDM Capable: false Is Removable: false Is Local: true Other Names: vml.0000000000766d686261323a303a30
One of the options I used the most with esxcfg-vmhbadevs was “-m”, which would result in the following:
vmhba0:0:0:5 /dev/sdb5 49b785f3-f263cec4-a4bd-000c29123ede
For esxcfg-scsidevs the option -m also displays this information, but VMware has added the VMFS name which makes it clear what the relationship is and saves me the extra step of matching ID’s with names manually:
mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:5 /dev/sdb5 49b785f3-f263cec4-a4bd-000c29123ede 0 Storage1
So far I’m happy with the improvements in the service console / remote cli! Up next: iSCSI.
I noticed you are doing a couple of vSphere blogpost, which is currently a beta product and under strict NDA. Aren’t you breaking the NDA? It seems unfair that you, as a VMware employee, are “allowed” to blog about the next release of ESX, while all the other beta-testers are dying to post stuff about it, but are unable to because of the NDA.
Nevertheless, still good info, thanks 😉
i have seen other people blogging about esx4, but never any screenshots, example:
http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=1049
I talked to Duncan about it this morning. Being at VMworld Europe 2009 he has an interesting approach which I hadn’t thought of but even if I had, I do not know if I would be blogging in detail about vSphere. It’s kind of a gray area but Duncan can explain more if he chooses. At any rate, Duncan’s writings are beneficial for everyone. Just try to save a few stories for us the little guys though Duncan 🙂
great post!
Thanks!