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rManic
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ESXi 4.1 Partition scheme SAN boot

Hi

I am going to use ESXi 4.1 with boot from SAN. I wnat to know what is the recommented disk size to install ESXi 4.1 on SAN.

If you have custom partition scheme for production environment,Please share .I tried to get it from VMware documents it is not there

your suggestion are appriciated.

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Manic

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a_p_
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from http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_esxi_i_vc_setup_guide.pdf

About the Scratch Partition

During the autoconfiguration phase, a 4GB VFAT scratch partition is created if the partition is not present on another disk.

When ESXi boots, the system tries to find a suitable partition on a local disk to create a scratch partition.

The scratch partition is not required. It is used to store vm-support output, which you need when you create a support bundle. If the scratch partition is not present, vm-support output is stored in a ramdisk. This might be problematic in low-memory situations, but is not critical.

For ESXi Installable, the partition is created during installation and is thus selected. VMware recommends that you leave it unchanged.

André

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Dave_Mishchenko
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You'll need 5 GB of space for the install. You can do it on 1 GB but then you have to set a scratch partition elsewhere. If you're going a scripted install you have to disable the creation of a datastore otherwise it will try to create one and you'll need 6 GB of space to get through the install.




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AntonVZhbankov
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>I wnat to know what is the recommented disk size to install ESXi 4.1 on SAN.

Can't find any official recommendations, but assuming that ESXi doesn't have special partitioning with boot from SAN comparing to USB, then 2GB is enough. Keeping in mind that ESXi will require more space in future - 4GB LUN is more than enough.


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rManic
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Dave

Thanks for your response

I am trying to setup a media server using VMdirect path on UCS with M81KR.I am almost to complete.that is My backup server is windows 2008 R2 and backup software is netbackup 7.0

tape library is IBM 3200.because management is not willing to go for physical server.Please give me your valuable suggetion.I have posted the same in the community sometime back.but i didn't get proper response.

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Manic

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rManic
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Do we need scrach partition only during installation or it is permanet?

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Manic

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a_p_
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from http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_esxi_i_vc_setup_guide.pdf

About the Scratch Partition

During the autoconfiguration phase, a 4GB VFAT scratch partition is created if the partition is not present on another disk.

When ESXi boots, the system tries to find a suitable partition on a local disk to create a scratch partition.

The scratch partition is not required. It is used to store vm-support output, which you need when you create a support bundle. If the scratch partition is not present, vm-support output is stored in a ramdisk. This might be problematic in low-memory situations, but is not critical.

For ESXi Installable, the partition is created during installation and is thus selected. VMware recommends that you leave it unchanged.

André

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rManic
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Hi all

thank you so much for all your help

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Manic

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rManic
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so what is your disk size recomentation?.

2 GB

5 GB

8 GB

or 10 GB

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Manic

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Dave_Mishchenko
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5 GB.




Dave

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rManic
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Dave

Thanks dave

I am expecting one more response from you for the bellow question

I am trying to setup a media server using VMdirect path on UCS with M81KR.I am almost to complete.that is My backup server is windows 2008 R2 and backup software is netbackup 7.0

tape library is IBM 3200.because management is not willing to go for physical server.Please give me your valuable suggetion.I have posted the same in the community sometime back.but i didn't get proper response.

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Manic

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Manic

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a_p_
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so what is your disk size recomentation?.

Even though 5 GB should be ok (1GB for the OS and 4GB for scratch) I'd suggest you configure the SAN LUNs to 6GB. There are threads in this forum where the installation could not create the scratch partition on a 5GB LUN. Maybe it's just a 5GB plus a few bytes which are needed, however most storage systems only allow 1GB increments.

When I separate OS and data disks, I usually create a 10GB OS disk. This will allow for a small VMFS datastore to upload ISO images etc.

André

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Dave_Mishchenko
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I'm not all that familiar with Cisco blades and the M81KR adapter, but if it is use for storage then you won't be able to use it for passthrough.




Dave

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rManic
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I have created 4 HBA's( two for stroage access and two for VMdirect path).I have configured I/O direct path in one of the VM and I also able to detect the HBA in VM OS and istalled the driver.Is there any restriction apart from that?.Please find the diagram for your refferance.

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Manic

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Dave_Mishchenko
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Looks like you're good to go.




Dave

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rManic
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Thanks

I will update same in community,once it is Succeeded.

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Manic

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sisi
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i was ok with 6gb san lun for booting up my esxi 4.1 from netapp 3240 (blade ibm hs22)

visit my blog at: http://vmgmt.wordpress.com
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RobertAnders
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Hi Dave,

I have a question to your answer:

Dave Mishchenko:

You'll need 5 GB of space for the install.  You can do it on 1 GB but then you have to set a scratch partition elsewhere.  If you're going a scripted install you have to disable the creation of a datastore otherwise it will try to create one and you'll need 6 GB of space to get through the install.

How can I disable the creation of a datastore. I want to install ESXi 4.1 with kickstart script and SAN boot. But I can't find an argument to prevent the datastore creation in the documentation. Do you know a way? What about the scratch partition? Is there a way to disable the creation of this partition, too?

Robert

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RobertAnders
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Seem that there are no arguments for the kickstart file to prevent the creation of a local datastore. So today I've tested some different disk sizes with the automated partitioning of the ESXi 4.1 installer. I've got the following results:

Disk sizeDatastoreScratch
2 GB--
4 GB3 GB-
6 GB-> 4 GB
8 GB3 GB> 4 GB


I found in KB1026500 that the required min size of the harddisk is 6 GB, without a datastore. That fit to my tests. I'm happy with that info. I gonna use 6 GB SAN LUN's for boot disk.

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