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6 Replies Last post: Jan 17, 2007 10:23 PM by Rumple  

/vmimages problems posted: Dec 10, 2006 7:09 PM

Click to view dopi's profile Novice
dopi
17 posts since
Oct 31, 2004
Hi All

I am looking to relocate /vmimages to a vmfs partition on a SAN Array.

I have added the following line to /etc/vmware/vpxa.cfg..
<vmImages>/vmfs/volumes/oranprodesx_vmimages</vmImages>
and restarted the service.

I have also created /vmfs/volumes/oranprodesx_vmimages/floppies and /vmfs/volumes/oranprodesx_vmimages/iso-images and added an iso file to the oranprodesx_vmimages directory along with the floppies and iso-images directories.

Now, when I attempt to point a VM's CDROM Drive to an iso image, I can see the iso file in the vmimages directory, however both the sub-directories appear empty. I know they are not, and I know VC is looking at the correct location.

What am I missing here? How can I get VC to see my iso images in iso-images and my flp images in floppies???

Permissions on oranprodesx_vmiamges and below are 755 and owned by root.

Thanks

David

Re: /vmimages problems

1. Dec 10, 2006 7:15 PM in response to: dopi
Click to view diztorted's profile Master
diztorted
733 posts since
Mar 14, 2005
Why would you do it that way instead of just mounting directly off the VMFS volume?? It should allow you to mount an ISO from VMFS directly.

Re: /vmimages problems

2. Dec 10, 2006 7:27 PM in response to: diztorted
Click to view dopi's profile Novice
dopi
17 posts since
Oct 31, 2004
I can do it that way, and if I browse the Datastore directly I can see all that I should be able to see.

However I figure if there is a vmimages directory provided then why not use it? That way users will not need to know the correct datastore location, they just browse the vmimages directory.

Fact is it doesn't work, when it should....

David

Re: /vmimages problems

3. Dec 11, 2006 4:38 AM in response to: dopi
Click to view hicksj's profile Master
hicksj
1,243 posts since
May 6, 2005
/vmimages is depricated. Don't use it.

reference page 185, vi3_installation_guide.pdf:
Obsolete with ESX Server 3.0. Remove from upgraded servers.

Re: /vmimages problems

4. Dec 11, 2006 10:59 AM in response to: hicksj
Click to view dgrace's profile Enthusiast
dgrace
74 posts since
Feb 18, 2005
Can you have one datastore just for images and then link /vmimages to that datastore? I'm STILL waiting on VMWare licensing <self-censored> before I upgrade to ESX 3 so I can't test that idea myself yet.

Re: /vmimages problems

5. Dec 11, 2006 12:24 PM in response to: dgrace
Click to view hicksj's profile Master
hicksj
1,243 posts since
May 6, 2005
Yes, you can setup one datastore just for images. Whether you can link /vmimages to that? I don't know. Possibly... /vmimages in ESX3 is a special handler, and the only ext3 filesystem directory presented when browsing Datastores in VC. I imagine you could remove/rename the existing /vmimages directory and replace it with a symbolic link to your VMFS3 volume storing ISO's.

However, your users will still see all VMFS3 volumes when accessing the Browse Datastore option for mounting CD's. So I'd suggest calling your VMFS3 volume something different than your normal VMFS3 volumes for VM's.

For example, we call all ours "vmfsa", "vmfsb", and so on. Except for our ISO images store, which is called "nettech". You could call this "vmimages" or "iso" or whatever you want to make it stand out for your users/admins.

Regards,
J

Re: /vmimages problems

6. Jan 17, 2007 10:23 PM in response to: hicksj
Click to view Rumple's profile Master
Rumple
1,261 posts since
Jan 6, 2005
you can probably just do a symbolic link using ln -s for the vmimages to point it at a vmfs volume

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