ESXi 4.0.0 not allowing access to full capacity of RAID volume (LSILOGIC)

[hilltop1]

Hello Everyone. I am new to ESXi, having just installed 4.0.0 on a custom built server. The server hardware is as follows:

Asus Z8PE-D12 motherboard

Asus PIKE 1068E SAS/SATA card

5x Seagate 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA drives

2x Xeon E5630 2.53 GH (Quad-Core)

etc...

The Asus PIKE 1068E card uses LSILOGIC chipset to provide SAS/SATA RAID0/1/1E functionality.

I have configured three of the hard drives into a RAID1E Array of size 2.0 TB using the LSILOGIC configuration utility accessible during system boot.

I installed ESXi on a different hard drive which is not part of a RAID array.

After booting ESXi, I launch the vSphere Client and connect to the server. I navigate to the Configuration -> Storage section and click Add Storage... option.

I selected Disk/LUN, then it lists the available devices. I am able to see the LSILOGIC Serial Attached SCSI Disk with a capacity of 2.05 TB. I then selected this disk to create a datastore.

On the next screen, it shows the device LSILOGIC Serial Attached SCSI Disk (and a very long identifier number). Capacity shows as 2.05TB but "Available" only shows 47.47GB. It also says "The hard disk is blank". (SEE SCREENSHOT)

I can't find a way to increase the 'Available' value to 2.05, which is the capacity of the drive. 47.47GB is nowhere near the capacity. The program will only allow me to create a Datastore with 47.47 GB space.

Does anyone have any suggestions for being able to access the full size of this volume in order to add it to ESXi as a datastore?

It doesn't appear to be a driver problem, because the volume is properly recognized and the capacity is displayed correctly. Not sure why it only shows 47.47 GB available.

ALL SUGGESTIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Thank you!

I have attached a screenshot of the management screen showing capacity and available space:

[scowse]

The best and fastest way to get answers is to search the forum because this question has been answered accurately many times.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/268756?tstart=30

[NuggetGTR · Accepted solution]

basically your disk size is greater than 2TB it will only let you use the the left over space after 2TB so being 2.05TB it would be around 50GB so 47 sounds about right, you disk needs to be 2TB - 512B, then it can use it all

[hilltop1]

Thank you for writing. Yes I realize that the fastest way to find answers is to search the forums. But, as one user noted in your link (http://communities.vmware.com/message/1535369#1535369), it is difficult to hit on the correct search terms. As you saw, my issue involved a LSILOGIC RAID, whereas other peoples' issue may involve other brands of RAID controllers. Also, depending on the size hard drive selected, different amounts of available space may appear, so searching for a specific amount of available space may not yield an answer to the problem (as was true in my case).

Please understand that I did try searching for these issues, but as the person wrote in your link, it is difficult to hit on the right search terms in this instance. Also, because the program was reporting the full size of the array (2.05 TB) it didn't occur to me that the program could not support such sizes in the Available column.

Please don't be too hasty to criticize users for asking questions. A simple link to a previous answer is very helpful.

“There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions”

Charles P. Steinmetz

[hilltop1]

Thank you for explaining this! It simply did not occur to me that ESXi could not support volumes larger than 2TB. Hopefully these posts will help someone else who is trying to search for this problem.

It would be helpful if they would display some sort of notice on the screen to make this clear!

Thanks again!