ESX was able to see my 1TB LUN from my NetApp storage array. When I tried to max a datastore out of this LUN there seemed to be a limitation of 0.25 of the TB storage. (And in turn can only give Windows a 256GB disk). If I thin provision multiple disks together will I be able to give Windows a 1TB disk then?
thanks,
-h
If I thin provision multiple disks together will I be able to give Windows a 1TB disk then?
Block size. you must have used the default 1 MB block size, which is limited to 256GB in a SINGLE VMDK file. You need to format the datastore to 4MB block size in order to maximize the windows disk. 4MB block size means 1TB, 8MB means 2TB. You can't go any larger than 8MB block size.
Thin provision ONLY means your disk will be the size that they are actually using, not the size provisioned. So if your Windows disk is set to 256GB, thin provision grows at the size actually being used, so if you install Windows it will show up as 10GB or so.
Even though RParker already answered your question, I'd like to mention http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012384
This KB article shows the maximum virtual disk sizes depending on the block size, it also contains a diagram with reduced disk sizes which apply, if you want to be able to take snapshots.
André
