Q&A - 256 GB drive limitation in ESX?
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Q&A - 256 GB drive limitation in ESX? Expand / Collapse
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Posted Monday, October 01, 2007 7:52 AM
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Question:

I can only build a 256 GB drive on my ESX server. I'm using 3.0.1 ESX, 2.0 VI Client, ESX VSA.

Answer:

Virtual disks (files) can be up to 256GB for SCSI disks with the default 1MB block size.  You will need to reformat the volume in ESX with a larger block size (non-default). 

 

Move the data first if there is anything that you want to keep.  (SSH, VMotion, etc to move it off)

 

Block size    Max VMDK size
1                    256 GB
2                    512 GB
4                    1024 GB
8                    2048 GB

 

See also “Maximum Configuration for ESX Server” Pages 27-28

“Datastore Partitioning” Pages 181-186

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_installation_guide.pdf

 

Spanning up to 32 physical storage extents (block size 8MB = 2TB) = maximum volume size of 64TB.



Christopher Viamonte
Post #64
Posted Monday, October 01, 2007 9:17 AM
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Q:  How is this done thru the command line?

 

A:  http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_server_config.pdf

vmkfstools File System Options

Example> vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 8M -S MyName vmhba0:0:0:3

 

This would format the device @ vmhba0:0:0:3 with 8MB pages and a datastore name of "MyName", allowing for the maximum vmdk file size of 2047GB.

 

Before running this command double check you have moved all data off that datastore and that you have the correct device name of vmhbaX:X:X:X.


Christopher Viamonte

Post #66
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