Cannot add new datastore

[mouseskowitz]

I cannot add storage to my 6.5 host. I have a 4TB drive that is connected to my machine, it shows up in the devices, but I can't do anything with it. I've tried formatting it via the command line, which does work. But I still can't do anything with the drive. How do I get this to work?

[hussainbte]

What is the 4 TB drive.

Is it presented form a supported array. Is it a direct attached storage.

please provide more details on the error messages and hardware details

[mouseskowitz]

It is a WD Purple direct attached to the mobo. The mobo is from a ThinkServer TS140, it's in a different case now. I don't get an error message, I just can't do anything with it.

I was having issues with the NTFS file system not being read correctly when it was using RDM. I couldn't move large files. I moved everything off the drive and have tried to reconnect it after a fresh formatting.

[PCTechStream]

Install and configure openFiler as your NAS storage, then take that 4 TB HDD to create 1 Volume and split it into 4 LUNs.

thats one of the best ways to add storage\datastore to a host. Openfiler is a network storage operating system which has the excellent integration capabilities for virtualization environment. To configure Openfiler in you VMware environment you can follow the below steps:

"Install and configure openFiler as your NAS storage"

LINK: Install and configure openFiler as your NAS storage - YouTube

Great EXAMPLE from "Configuration Guide - Openfiler as Shared Storage in Virtual Environment Lab"

LINK: http://vmwareinsight.com/Tutorials/2016/7/5799894/Step-by-Step-Configuration-Guide-for-Using-Openfil...

Raul.

VMware VDI Administrator.

http://ITCloudStream.com/

Stay Connected  :smileyplus: Don't forget to:

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[mouseskowitz]

openFiler looks interesting, but I don't think it will help me. I only have one machine to run my VMs on and it's currently installed as a Type 1. So, I doubt that I could change anything by adding a openFiler VM to it.

[mouseskowitz]

I tried mapping it as a RDM again. It only shows up as 1678.02 GB. What is going on here? The size limit for RDM was increased to 62 TB as of ESXi 5.5, and I'm running 6.5. The drives that are connected to my LSI 2008 don't have a problem, but the ones connected directly to the mobo do. The controller shows up as Lynx Point AHCI Controller.

[PCTechStream]

For testing - try a very small HDD & check if you see the full size - If Yes! then, I would recommend checking (1) BIOS, (2) RAID controller generation (3) HDD's are all at their most recent firmware.

"To work around this issue, configure multiple logical volumes of the  maximum size (2TB - 512 bytes) using the hardware raid-controller  firmware.

You can dynamically add new extents to your VMFS datastore to  increase the VMFS volumes capacity using smaller logical volumes, to a  maximum of 64TB"

Raul.

VMware VDI Administrator.

http://ITCloudStream.com/

Stay Connected :smileyplus: Don't forget to:

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[mouseskowitz · Accepted solution]

Raul​ Thank you. Your firmware comment got me to searching and I found a couple posts (here and here) talking about issues with my mobo controller. More specifically the native EXSi driver doesn't play nice with the Lynx Point AHCI Controller. All I had to do is disable the native driver and let the controller specific one do the work. This also means that the SSD that I replaced thinking it was bad actually isn't. I wish I had figured this out before trying to empty a 4TB disk and reformat it. Oh well, if you're not breaking something you're not learning.