Comments on: Partitioning your ESX host – part II http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/ Building blocks for virtualization... Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:16:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: CleverTrevor http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5496 CleverTrevor Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:35:25 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5496 Hi I have got 2 mirrored 14.7 GB SSDs? Any suggestions on the best way to configure the partitions? I am a Windows dude and don't really understand this stuff. Thanks CT Hi

I have got 2 mirrored 14.7 GB SSDs? Any suggestions on the best way to configure the partitions? I am a Windows dude and don’t really understand this stuff.

Thanks

CT

]]> By: dhunt40 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5294 dhunt40 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:19:38 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5294 Wilson, I see your point on the log files filling up even a large volume. So would you proportionally adjust the size of the various partitions so that the aggregate size of the partitions fill up the 144 GB drive space? Or would you leave some disk space free and if so, for what? thanks, dan Wilson, I see your point on the log files filling up even a large volume. So would you proportionally adjust the size of the various partitions so that the aggregate size of the partitions fill up the 144 GB drive space? Or would you leave some disk space free and if so, for what?

thanks,

dan

]]> By: wilson http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5291 wilson Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:52:32 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5291 @aenagy : "With HDDs at a minimum of 72 GB, soon to be 144 GB, what’s the point of splitting out the partitions other than “/boot”, “/”, swap and vmcore?" Quite simply, VMware ESX (including 3.5U4) will occasionally have a problem and start spewing logs like crazy. This will then run the system out of disk space and consequently cause esx.conf to truncate, which will then render your system quite unmanageable. I'll prefer to keep my partitions separate, thank you very much. @aenagy : “With HDDs at a minimum of 72 GB, soon to be 144 GB, what’s the point of splitting out the partitions other than “/boot”, “/”, swap and vmcore?”

Quite simply, VMware ESX (including 3.5U4) will occasionally have a problem and start spewing logs like crazy. This will then run the system out of disk space and consequently cause esx.conf to truncate, which will then render your system quite unmanageable.

I’ll prefer to keep my partitions separate, thank you very much.

]]> By: Duncan http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5290 Duncan Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:11:05 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5290 because the size of your mountpoints will not increase. Remember the COS is a VMDK on a VMFS volume. This VMFS volume will be roughly 143GB and the partitions within the VMDK will not be able to grow. because the size of your mountpoints will not increase. Remember the COS is a VMDK on a VMFS volume. This VMFS volume will be roughly 143GB and the partitions within the VMDK will not be able to grow.

]]> By: dhunt40 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5289 dhunt40 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:17:52 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5289 I have the same question as Razor. What do I do with all of the additional local storage on mirrored 144 GB drives? Also, with this much space, why partition anything other than boosting the swap partition to 1.6 GB? Dan I have the same question as Razor. What do I do with all of the additional local storage on mirrored 144 GB drives? Also, with this much space, why partition anything other than boosting the swap partition to 1.6 GB?

Dan

]]> By: Razor http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5191 Razor Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:15:20 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5191 Hi, Im installing VMware Sphere 4 and am fresh new on this field. I have 2 146 GB HDD and using raid1. The partitions are as follows: Mount Point Size (M) / 10240 swap 1600 /var 6142 /var/core 15360 /opt 2048 /home 2048 /tmp 2048 This makes up around 40 GB with /boot and vmkcore partitions. The rest of the space is for VFMS datastore to store virtual machines. But as I will be using a SAN, so I guess 100 GB remains unused. please correct me. Thanks, Razor. Hi,

Im installing VMware Sphere 4 and am fresh new on this field. I have 2 146 GB HDD and using raid1. The partitions are as follows:

Mount
Point Size (M)

/ 10240
swap 1600
/var 6142
/var/core 15360
/opt 2048
/home 2048
/tmp 2048

This makes up around 40 GB with /boot and vmkcore partitions.

The rest of the space is for VFMS datastore to store virtual machines. But as I will be using a SAN, so I guess 100 GB remains unused.

please correct me.

Thanks,

Razor.

]]> By: Manfred http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-5016 Manfred Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:00 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-5016 Hi found this Today: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/Q_23835860.html >> With ESXi you cannot change this during the install, but you can create a new volume afterwards to replace the datastore that is made with installation. ************************************************************************************************************************* ************ CAUTION: following the steps below WILL remove all data in the existing datastore. ******* ************************************************************************************************************************* First, log into your VMware Infrastructure client. Highlight the virtual host from the left pane (should be the only thing there, since this is a fresh install). Go to the configuration tab, and select "Storage" under the Hardware heading. To the right you will see your datastore, and a column labelled "device." Record the data from this column (mine was vmhba1:0:0:3). You will need this later. 1) At the VMware console (where you see the machine's IP) press Alt - F1 to get to a new console window with some log information. 2) Type "unsupported" (no quotes) and hit enter. You will not see the characters as you type them 3) Enter the "root" password -- you are now at a commandline 4) enter the following command: vmkfstools --createfs vmfs3 --blocksize 8M vmhba1:0:0:3 Replace the blocksize parameter with whatever you need (I used 2M, to get virtual machines up to 500ish gigs). Replace the vmhba1:0:0:3 with the name that you recorded earlier. All set! Shalom Manfred Hi

found this Today:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/Q_23835860.html
>>
With ESXi you cannot change this during the install, but you can create a new volume afterwards to replace the datastore that is made with installation.

*************************************************************************************************************************
************ CAUTION: following the steps below WILL remove all data in the existing datastore. *******
*************************************************************************************************************************
First, log into your VMware Infrastructure client. Highlight the virtual host from the left pane (should be the only thing there, since this is a fresh install). Go to the configuration tab, and select “Storage” under the Hardware heading. To the right you will see your datastore, and a column labelled “device.” Record the data from this column (mine was vmhba1:0:0:3). You will need this later.

1) At the VMware console (where you see the machine’s IP) press Alt – F1 to get to a new console window with some log information.
2) Type “unsupported” (no quotes) and hit enter. You will not see the characters as you type them
3) Enter the “root” password — you are now at a commandline
4) enter the following command: vmkfstools –createfs vmfs3 –blocksize 8M vmhba1:0:0:3
Replace the blocksize parameter with whatever you need (I used 2M, to get virtual machines up to 500ish gigs). Replace the vmhba1:0:0:3 with the name that you recorded earlier. All set!

Shalom
Manfred

]]> By: mickier http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-4951 mickier Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:22:55 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-4951 I'm seeing something I don't understand - I have 6x1TB drives, raid 6, and I have 3.9TB. I install esxi 4, and it says the total space on this array is 1.9TB. It cuts the space in 1/2...?! I’m seeing something I don’t understand – I have 6×1TB drives, raid 6, and I have 3.9TB. I install esxi 4, and it says the total space on this array is 1.9TB.
It cuts the space in 1/2…?!

]]> By: richardg http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-4869 richardg Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:39:15 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-4869 I have a question in the past on 3.5 it was a reccommended to have your vmcore and swap on different arrays. So is this no longer needed either. We have been building our servers out with 4 72's split into to arrays of 69gb each and splitting up the partitions is this needed anymore??? Thanks for the help. I have a question in the past on 3.5 it was a reccommended to have your vmcore and swap on different arrays. So is this no longer needed either. We have been building our servers out with 4 72’s split into to arrays of 69gb each and splitting up the partitions is this needed anymore???
Thanks for the help.

]]> By: vmmeup http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-4720 vmmeup Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:45:44 +0000 http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?p=3231#comment-4720 Take a look at this, http://www.dailyhypervisor.com/?p=1479 you could script your installations and create multiple VMFS Datastores on your drive. If you create a COS only Datastore and size it to the COS you could isolate it from having other VM's placed on it. Alternatively you could just create the COS disk as large as you want to almost fill a single VMFS partition. Take a look at this, http://www.dailyhypervisor.com/?p=1479 you could script your installations and create multiple VMFS Datastores on your drive. If you create a COS only Datastore and size it to the COS you could isolate it from having other VM’s placed on it. Alternatively you could just create the COS disk as large as you want to almost fill a single VMFS partition.

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