I've installed ESXi 4.1U1 to an SD card (in a Dell PowerEdge R710 server with internal SD module).
By curiosity, I want to see the partitions on the SD card but vSphere client is unable to show its partitions. I know I could shutdown ESXi host and check the SD card partitions on a Windows computer, but that's not what I wanted and that's not the point.
So, it's just purely impossible?
You can see the disks and partitions in /dev/disks/
With fdisk -l you have a detailed list
In /dev/disks/, I see a lot of "files" but I'm not sure how to "interpretate" what I see there.
"fdisk -l" is better, but we have a lot of "interpretations" to do. It would be more user-friendly if they could show SD card's partition in vSphere client as well.
Thanks
A VMFS lun usally has a single partitions.
You see partition (under /dev/disks) by the :n (where n is the partition number).
ESXi use two boot banks that are FAT formatted.
See also: http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/if-vmware-esxi-4-is-so-small-why-is-it-so-big/
OK, thanks for the article. That might also answer my other questions in the other discussion.
Here are some rather late answers to this question under ESXi 5.0.
esxcli can list all your storage devices:
~ # esxcli storage core device list
naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001
Display Name: HITACHI iSCSI Disk (naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001)
Has Settable Display Name: true
Size: 4505600
Device Type: Direct-Access
Multipath Plugin: NMP
Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001
Vendor: HITACHI
Model: DF600F
Revision: 0000
SCSI Level: 4
Is Pseudo: false
Status: on
Is RDM Capable: true
Is Local: false
Is Removable: false
Is SSD: false
Is Offline: false
Is Perennially Reserved: false
Thin Provisioning Status: yes
Attached Filters: VAAI_FILTER
VAAI Status: supported
Other UIDs: vml.020001000060060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001444636303046
naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950
Display Name: HP Serial Attached SCSI Disk (naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950)
Has Settable Display Name: true
Size: 4769187
Device Type: Direct-Access
Multipath Plugin: NMP
Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950
Vendor: HP
Model: LOGICAL VOLUME
Revision: 5.70
SCSI Level: 5
Is Pseudo: false
Status: degraded
Is RDM Capable: true
Is Local: false
Is Removable: false
Is SSD: false
Is Offline: false
Is Perennially Reserved: false
Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
Attached Filters:
VAAI Status: unknown
Other UIDs: vml.0200010000600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f9504c4f47494341
mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
Has Settable Display Name: false
Size: 3830
Device Type: Direct-Access
Multipath Plugin: NMP
Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
Vendor: Single
Model: Flash Reader
Revision: 1.00
SCSI Level: 2
Is Pseudo: false
Status: on
Is RDM Capable: false
Is Local: true
Is Removable: true
Is SSD: false
Is Offline: false
Is Perennially Reserved: false
Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
Attached Filters:
VAAI Status: unsupported
Other UIDs: vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30
In this example the first device is a LUN on a SAN, the second device is the local disk and the last item is clearly the SD Card ("Model: Flash Reader"). The 'Other UIDs' will appear in the device listing.
You can list the disk devices by listing /vmfs/devices/disks/:
~ # ls -lh /vmfs/devices/disks/
-rw------- 1 root root 3.7G Aug 28 15:28 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
-rw------- 1 root root 4.0M Aug 28 15:28 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:1
-rw------- 1 root root 250.0M Aug 28 15:28 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:5
-rw------- 1 root root 250.0M Aug 28 15:28 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:6
-rw------- 1 root root 110.0M Aug 28 15:28 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:7
-rw------- 1 root root 286.0M Aug 28 15:28 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:8
-rw------- 1 root root 4.5T Aug 28 15:28 naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950
-rw------- 1 root root 4.5T Aug 28 15:28 naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950:1
-rw------- 1 root root 4.3T Aug 28 15:28 naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001
-rw------- 1 root root 4.3T Aug 28 15:28 naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001:1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30:1 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30:5 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30:6 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30:7 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30:8 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0200010000600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f9504c4f47494341 -> naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 38 Aug 28 15:28 vml.0200010000600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f9504c4f47494341:1 -> naa.600508b1001c04cc66656266bf94f950:1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 Aug 28 15:28 vml.020001000060060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001444636303046 -> naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 38 Aug 28 15:28 vml.020001000060060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001444636303046:1 -> naa.60060e80105d5ab005705e3b00000001:1
The partitions on the SD card are the first six lines and you can see their sizes. The device (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0) will not appear in the GUI, which makes working out if you are running on a flash card or not quite challenging.
Daniel