RAID 5 not showing in ESXi 4.1

[ksadenison]

We have an HP DL380 G7 with a Smart Array P410i controller. Currently we have 2 disks (146GB each) in a RAID 1 and 6 disks (1TB each) in a RAID 5. I am trying to find a way to add the 4.5TB of storage as multiple datastores. I know about the 2TB limitation so we are trying to find a way around it without having to give up more space by just creating multiple RAIDs.

We have tried using GParted to partition the RAID 5 into 3 equal 1.5TB partitions but no matter what we try, ESXi does not see any of the space. When I start the ESXi installer, it shows the 146GB RAID 1 but the 4.5TB RAID 5 shows as 0.0B. In the vSphere client, the RAID 5 doesn't even show up at all.

Is there a way to partition the RAID 5 so ESXi will see it and be able to use it? Thanks.

[titaniumlegs]

There is no way to make ESX(i) 4.x see more that 2TB of a single LUN.  RAID "volumes" are presented just like LUNs, and 2TB is the most it can see.  The reason is that VMFS 3 uses the SCSI 10-byte command headers, which have an LBA size of 32 bits.  2^32 x 512 (bytes/sector) = 2TB.

If there is a way to make the RAID controller present different slices/volumes as different LUNs, such that it does LBA translation in the RAID controller, that could work.  I don't currently have access to a DL380 to check it out for myself.

[ksadenison]

Yes, I already knew about the 2TB limitation but I was trying to find a way around it since I couldn't figure out how to create multiple LUNs on the RAID controller. I updated the firmware for the controller and I was finally able to create the LUNs on the controller. I now have 3 LUNs of 1.5 TB each and ESXi recognized all 3 so everything is great now. Thanks for the reply.

[xsolution]

i am also knew about the limitation abd tying to figure out something i have 2 TB 3 drive and i configure the RAID 5 on it but i can't see any storage during installation.

but may be this link will be helpfull to you..

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1036609

i have still prolem on raid 5. i have server oh HP with model # ML350 - G6. with smart arry card P410i i have 3 drives of 2TB and i configured RAID 5 but its not showing nay storage on ESX, if you have any suggestions or helpfull links so please update me as soon as possible.