VMFS5 vmdk sizes >2TB?

[1q2w3e4r]

vSphere5 supports VMFS largert han 2TB, but the maximum vmdk is still limited to 2TB, is that right?

I've just provisioned a 4TB LUN, presented to vSphere5 as a 4TB VMFS5 volume, no problem there. But I've gone to create a VM and the maximum disk size it will accept is still 2TB. Is there any way to create a 4TB disk? I need a 4TB volume in a Windows VM. I'm currently doing this by spanning 2 x 2TB disks as a GPT volume and it works, but I'd like have just one big disk if possible.

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

You are correct - 2 TB is the largest a VMDK can be per http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r50/vsphere-50-configuration-maximums.pdf

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you present the LUN as a physical Raw Device Mapping (RDM) instead you can exceed 2 TB.

If you stick with virtual disks and you plan to use snapshots then you'll want to go with 2 TB - 32 GB as the virtual disk size.

[depping]

You can use the 4TB volume as a RDM in Physical Mode. That will work fine. VMDKs are unfortunately still limited to 2TB.