esxi 5.5 SD card error No scratch partition has been configured

[hyvm]

Hi

I installed esxi 5.5.0 u1 for HP on HP DL 380 G6 SD card (San Disk Extreme 16GB) after installation on events there is an error: No  scratch partition has been configured

I need to install 4 VM on this machine and have 4 SAS disk as logical drive, I tried to move scratch partition to SAS disk but problem not solved.

So I checked my SD on laptop and it was just 3.9MB !!! 

What is the reason for this size showing on windows and why its FAT should not be VMFS-5 ?

Main question is how to solve this prob?

Thanks.

[chrklee]

I think the problem should be solved once you fix up the path that ESXi uses for scratch. Seehttp://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=103369...

Thanks,

Christoph

[hyvm]

Thank you Christoph

I tried this way before with no success, finally I installed on SAS disk.

As this guide page8 :

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vSphere-5-ESXi-Operations-Guide.pdf

An important consideration when choosing the type of boot device for ESXi hosts is the location of the ESXi

scratch partition. The scratch partition is a 4GB region used by ESXi to store log files and core dumps, as well as

a staging area for updates and other temporary files. During the ESXi installation, the installer will attempt to

allocate a 4GB region of disk from a local disk for the scratch partition. If no local disk is available, the scratch

partition will be created on a RAM disk in the host’s memory. It’s important to note that because the scratch

partition is an area of heavy write I/O, placing it on a USB/SD device is not allowed. When installing on a host

with no local datastores (i.e., boot from USB/SD), it’s important that following the ESXi installation, users

manually reconfigure the scratch partition to reside on a persistent datastore.

I think its not good Idea to use SD/ USB for Installing esxi , when Hyper Visor use local disk or RAM for high traffic I/O is there any reason to use SD /USB? so I will select one of local disks for all vmware 4MB esxi and 4GB scratch.

The answer is : SD/ USB is useless as boot device for VMWare esxi

[Wh33ly]

It only says it's not supported to put the scratch on the USB/SD disk.

So yes you can install ESXi on USB/SD and for the scratch partition :

1) Use no disks and let the scratch partition be created in the RAM

2) Use a local disk or datastore to store the scratch partition.

So imo it's not valid to say that SD/USB is useless.

I have about 100 ESX hosts running from SD, saves like 100x 2 logical disks + array controller etc. And the cheapest disk is around 146 GB while you don't use it. I think it's pretty money consuming without real benefits. Also I regularly see array controller fixes which solve memory leaks or PSOD. Haven't seen those for SD card readers yet.

Depending on your situation you have to see what suits best for you.

[vcpsfitz]

To give you a brief answer to your original question.  SD card's are normally always FAT because of the type of storage it is, and the part of the SD card that you are seeing FAT may be only the part that ESXi did not format.

Your scratch partition can be changed by editing your advanced settings of the esxi 5.5 host using the link that chrklee suggested above.  You will have to reboot the host for the change to take effect, but I can say that this does in fact fix the 'no scratch space configured error' that you are receiving.  Also another note, an update in AFAIK ESXi5.1 allows the scratch space to be stored on an iSCSI or FC attached LUN as well as a localdatastore.

[hyvm]

Wh33ly wrote:

So yes you can install ESXi on USB/SD and for the scratch partition :

1) Use no disks and let the scratch partition be created in the RAM

2) Use a local disk or datastore to store the scratch partition.

Thanks, but when we are using local disk for scratch and log, why we don't use that local disk for ESXI?
In my example I have HP DL380 G6 with 4 SAS 146 as logical disk, made one of them boot drive in controller and  I need to install 4 win 2008, so I will install ESXI + scratch on first bootable SAS and use this disk too for first win 2008, isn't it better idea or I'm making mistake?
And if using 4GB RAM for scratch in HyperVisor is vmware offer I think they should hide it in virtualization competition.

[Wh33ly]

In your situation you indeed can install them on the local disk as you already have a local disk array.

[a_p_]

With local disks on place, the only advantage of installing ESXi on USB/SD is that you can add disks to the RAID set - depending on the controller and BBWC/FBWC - and increase the datastore at a later time (if required). With the 4 disks in place you may just create a single RAID set (e.g. RAID10 or RAID5) with a single logical volume and install ESXi. The installation will partition the logical volume automatically. Depending on whether this is a lab or production host, you should consider to add one more disk as a hot spare.

André

[xadox]

Can a LUN be used as Scratch Partition?

[CoolRam]

I would suggest  to keep your ESXi in one of the local disk and distribute the VM on the other drive. One or two drive is also sufficient to keep all your configuration i.e One For(ESXi+ some Window host) + other drive (Keep some Windows Machine).

As keeping the Hypervisor in SD card/Pen Drive is not a god idea.

Rest on You if you are looking for specific one. 

[TobiasArvastsso]

Yes a LUN can be used for scratch partition. All the hosts in our environment have the scratch on the same LUN. Create a map on the datastore and point the scratch location to it.