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ESXi 4.0 RDM

N

Ndel

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
154
Anyone have any experience with creating RDM's on ESXi 4.0 using vmkfstools -r?

I installed ESXi 4.0 and I want to use local storage as a RDM, in 3.5 I use to use the command

vmkfstools -r /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba33:0:0:0 /vmfs/volumes/disk1.vmdk

The command doesnt work now and I get the error:

Failed to create virtual disk: The destination file system does not support large files (12).

Can anyone point me in the right direction or tell me what im doing wrong?

Thanks in advance
 
Try the naa device or mpx device, but remember -these are totally not supported in any way
 
Thanks for getting back to me lopoetve

I tried using the option esxcfg-mpath -l

but neither the naa or mpx is displayed I get this

sata.vmhba33-sata.0:0-t10.ATA_____SAMSUNG_HD103UJ_________________________S13PJDWQA29925______
Runtime Name: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
Device: t10.ATA_____SAMSUNG_HD103UJ_________________________S13PJDWQA29925______
Device Display Name: Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____SAMSUNG_HD103UJ_________________________S13PJDWQA29925______)
Adapter: vmhba33 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
Adapter Identifier: sata.vmhba33
Target Identifier: sata.0:0
Plugin: NMP
State: active
Transport: sata
 
thanks for the heads up,

here are my results

t10.ATA_____WDC_WD1001FALS2D00J7B0________________________WD2DWMATV0883946
Device Type: Direct-Access
Size: 953869 MB
Display Name: Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____WDC_WD1001FALS2D00J7B0_____________ ___________WD2DWMATV0883946)
Plugin: NMP
Console Device: /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD1001FALS2D00J7B0_______ _________________WD2DWMATV0883946
Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD1001FALS2D00J7B0___________ _____________WD2DWMATV0883946
Vendor: ATA Model: WDC WD1001FALS-0 Revis: 05.0
SCSI Level: 5 Is Pseudo: false Status: on
Is RDM Capable: false Is Removable: false
Is Local: true
Other Names:
vml.0100000000202020202057442d574d41545630383833393436574443205744
 
lopoetve said:
Try the naa device or mpx device, but remember -these are totally not supported in any way
Click to expand...

I am receiving this same error and I've made sure that the destination datastore is using 8MB block sizes.

I'm using the command:

vmkfstools -r /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba2:0:0:0 /vmfs/volumes/LFS/WHS/Whs1.vmdk

And get the same error:

Failed to create virtual disk: The destination file system does not support large files (12).
 
Last edited:
I think it has something to do with the storage adapter type. When I was using ESXi 3.5 update 3 the storage adapter was scsi, now in ESXi 4.0 it is block scsi, this is the same with 3.5 update 4. I actually rolled back on update 4 because of this.

Anyway to change the storage adapter type? If I were to get a raid card would this also change the adapter type also?

Thanks
 
I was thinking that. I was able to to create a RDM for an array on my Perc 5/i, but I was having problems with the drive that was attached to the onboard MCP55.

Rather than mess with something that isn't supported, I just loaded Hyper-V Server R2. Took 10 minutes to load it, and another 45 seconds to take the disc offline and I had direct access to the phyiscal drive.

This method was a lot easier as all I had to do was pop the 3 drives into the server, mark them off line and create the VM. A reboot after it detected the new hardware and my WHS has been moved!
 
FromTheLou said:
I was thinking that. I was able to to create a RDM for an array on my Perc 5/i, but I was having problems with the drive that was attached to the onboard MCP55.

Rather than mess with something that isn't supported, I just loaded Hyper-V Server R2. Took 10 minutes to load it, and another 45 seconds to take the disc offline and I had direct access to the phyiscal drive.

This method was a lot easier as all I had to do was pop the 3 drives into the server, mark them off line and create the VM. A reboot after it detected the new hardware and my WHS has been moved!
Click to expand...

Do you mean access the discs through Hyper-V instead of ESXi? or were you able to access the discs through ESXi once you had installed Hyper-V? I'm a little confused, did you end up nesting Hyper-V?

Thanks
 
Ndel said:
Do you mean access the discs through Hyper-V instead of ESXi? or were you able to access the discs through ESXi once you had installed Hyper-V? I'm a little confused, did you end up nesting Hyper-V?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I was able to access both a Raid 5 & Raid 0 SAS array that was on my Dell Perc 5/i via RDM in ESXi 4. (I did not attempt to access the 1.5TB drive via the Perc 5/i but I will be able to test that later this week. I have a spare 1TB drive and ESXi on a flash drive so it shouldn't be to much to test it.)

I ran into the same error you had when attempting to access my 1.5TB Seagate drive using RDM via the motherboards onboard SATA controller (the MCP55 chipset).

My WHS install was spread over 3 disks (2x1TB & 1x1.5TB), so not being able to have direct access to my disks would have required a huge hard drive and data shuffle.

So I replaced ESXi with Hyper-V Server R2 and the total process took about 15 minutes (with 10 of that being the phyiscal labor of moving drives from one machine to the new one).

Once I marked the drives as offline on the Hyper-V server, it was as simple as creating a new Hyper-V VM without an attached disk. Then I changed the settings and pointed it to the physical disks.

A reboot after the first power on (so that WHS could detect the new hardware) and I was off and running.

Here is the SS of the physical disk setting in the VM.

whsvm.jpg


Only limitation I've found so far is that the VM only has 2 IDE controllers (ie only 4 drives can be connected at once). I am still looking into a possible work around for this.
 
Ndel said:
I think it has something to do with the storage adapter type. When I was using ESXi 3.5 update 3 the storage adapter was scsi, now in ESXi 4.0 it is block scsi, this is the same with 3.5 update 4. I actually rolled back on update 4 because of this.

Anyway to change the storage adapter type? If I were to get a raid card would this also change the adapter type also?

Thanks
Click to expand...

It's because of the addition of multipathed SAS as a storage pathing type.
 
lopoetve said:
It's because of the addition of multipathed SAS as a storage pathing type.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response

do you think I would have any luck if I had a actual raid controller instead of using ICH9?
 
FromTheLou said:
I was able to access both a Raid 5 & Raid 0 SAS array that was on my Dell Perc 5/i via RDM in ESXi 4. (I did not attempt to access the 1.5TB drive via the Perc 5/i but I will be able to test that later this week. I have a spare 1TB drive and ESXi on a flash drive so it shouldn't be to much to test it.)

I ran into the same error you had when attempting to access my 1.5TB Seagate drive using RDM via the motherboards onboard SATA controller (the MCP55 chipset).

My WHS install was spread over 3 disks (2x1TB & 1x1.5TB), so not being able to have direct access to my disks would have required a huge hard drive and data shuffle.

So I replaced ESXi with Hyper-V Server R2 and the total process took about 15 minutes (with 10 of that being the phyiscal labor of moving drives from one machine to the new one).

Once I marked the drives as offline on the Hyper-V server, it was as simple as creating a new Hyper-V VM without an attached disk. Then I changed the settings and pointed it to the physical disks.

A reboot after the first power on (so that WHS could detect the new hardware) and I was off and running.

Here is the SS of the physical disk setting in the VM.

whsvm.jpg


Only limitation I've found so far is that the VM only has 2 IDE controllers (ie only 4 drives can be connected at once). I am still looking into a possible work around for this.
Click to expand...

hmm looks good I might give this a try, I really need to build a dedicated server. I have to save some money. I am using my gaming desktop for now.
 
Ndel said:
Thanks for the response

do you think I would have any luck if I had a actual raid controller instead of using ICH9?
Click to expand...

Probably not :(

It's not supported and generally for good reason :-/
 
Ndel said:
hmm looks good I might give this a try, I really need to build a dedicated server. I have to save some money. I am using my gaming desktop for now.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to point out another limitation is that you lose the ability to take snapshots of the VM and any HA options can't be used.

Those limitations are there no matter which software you go with.
 
May I ask why you want to use RDM as opposed to just utilizing a VMDK on shared storage(or hell even local)?
 
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