Adding drives for local storage on existing ESX4 host

[NZSolly]

Hi all, I have added SSD drives and created a new logical drive, however I believe ESX is unable to use the drive as it is not partitions as when the installer 1st builds the host.

The host sees the capacit,

So my question is, is there a process to add logical drives and partition for existing Hosts

I get 'Error during the configuration of the host. Failed to update disk partition information

thanks

Greg

[golddiggie]

Did you rescan the storage adapters to ensure the new array shows up there (first)?

What RAID controller are you using for the new storage, what RAID level are you using, etc.?

What do you see when you go into the Storage Adapters and select the controller for the drives?

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[NZSolly]

As you can see, the new array shows up, 1st time I tried adding storage it showed capacity but no available space (and a thought ok no partition), i had already rebooted the host as I couldnt see the array\logical drive 1st time.

So I was getting the messages about drive partition info, and though I had to find some app to patition the logical space before ESX could use it, anyway, this morning I tried again, this time the capacity was available, so i tried to add datastore but after clicking finish, i got the error you see attached.

The controller is P800 the logical drive is SATA SSD, connected to the P800....

[golddiggie]

The HCL only lists that HP controller with SAS for ESX/ESXi 4 releases. It does list it for SAS/SATA-RAID for ESX 3.5 (and before) releases... Might work with SATA RAID.

Is your ESXi host booting from RAID (local) storage?

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[NZSolly]

Hi, i didnt think of that, and actually i am wrong, the drive is attached to P400 which comes with the DL380, the P800 has a MSA50 tray attached to it....

The P400 has local mirror for Host O/s......AND my new SSD RAID array!

[NZSolly]

Do you think I should move the array to the P800 and try?

[NZSolly]

Get the same error with array on the P800 as the P400....

[golddiggie]

Is this with a single drive or pair? What's the other physical storage configuration? Talking about drives and configuration here, as well as on which controller?

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[NZSolly]

Its a single SSD in RAID 0 config for prove of concept for SQL Server database files.....If performance proves itself we will make a mirror.......

Now the Host is a DL380 G5, with P400 and P800, the 400 has the mirror array for the host o/s, thats all, the P800 now has 3 arrays, 6 x 146 SAS RAID 10 and 3 x 146 RAID 5 and 1 x 100Gb SATA-SSD as RAID 0.....

[golddiggie]

RAID needs more than a single drive, unless you've hacked/tricked the controller into using a single drive. Generally NOT a good idea even if you can do it. I've never (in 20+ years) seen any RAID controller present a single drive RAID volume. Typically, the controller won't even build an array unless it has the proper count of spindles/drives inside the configuration of that array.

If you could get a second drive to match the one you're looking to test with, placing them into a RAID configuration, it would probably work.

Check with HP to see if you can mix up SAS and SATA drives on the same controller. That could be the stumbling point too.

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[NZSolly]

Umm, I dont see any issue with the array?, RAid 1 needs more than 1, Raid 5, 3 or more, Raid 0 is any number of disks......I guess I just used raid 0 as their isnt just a volume....I dont thin the controller would of created the array if there was an issue. hpacucli confirms status ok etc....besides which I am presenting a logicaldrive to the host, not an array.....

I will check about single drive arrays...

[golddiggie]

Typically it's understood that RAID always starts with two drives, never one. I've never seen, or even attempted to create, a RAID array with a single drive. You don't gain anything by trying to use a single drive in a RAID configuration. Such as RAID 0 starts with two drives, moving up from that. RAID 1 starts with two drives, moving up in pairs, RAID 5 starts with three drives, moving up from there, RAID 10 starts with four drives, moving up in pairs from there, etc.

Even a basic description starts with two drives. Here too...

From my experience with HP server hardware, I wouldn't put anything past the controller's settings... While they make great networking hardware, I think they drop the ball on too many areas with servers to make me comfortable ever using them.

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[NZSolly]

Okay, I think this

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100148...

is the issue.....will check what I can do..

thanks for your help!