Forgot to create a VMFS partition during install.

[ncentech]

Hi all, I just now realized that during the installation of VI 3.5 i made all of my partitions but instead of creating a VMFS with the remaing space I left it as free space and now I don't see a VMFS for the remaining of the local disk space. Do we really need it? and if so how can I create a vmfs partition with the remaining free space? Thanks for your help. regards,

[Karunakar]

Hi,

Try to connect to the ESX machine from VI client, and then go to the configuration tab > Storage tab,

There on the top right corner you will have an option to add storage, continue to follow that wizard, this will create the VMFS storage there.

-Karunakar

[azn2kew]

You can also use these commands to manage your datastore.

Manage Datastores

List device file names associated with a server's LUNs	esxcfg-vmhbadevs
Map VMFS volumes to their LUNs and vmhba name	esxcfg-vmhbadevs -m
Create one or more partitions on a LUN	fdisk device_file_name
Display the partition table for the specified LUN	fdisk -l device_file_name
Create a VMFS volume	vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -S VMFS_volume_label partition_address (vmhba#.#.#.#)
Map label names with physical VMFS volumes	ls -l /vmfs/volumes
Change the VMFS volume label	ln -sf /vmfs/volumes/UUID /vmfs/volumes/new_label_name
Display VMFS volume metadata	vmkfstools -P -h /vmfs/volumes/volume_label
Extend a VMFS volume	vmkfstools -Z VMFS_extent name_of_existing_VMFS
Remove a VMFS volume extent	Recreate the VMFS volume
Display VMFS and service console filesystem usage	vdf -h

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[SuryaVMware]

Karunakar,

That is only good for formating the entire LUN/Disk not allow you to create individual datastore.

You could use esxcfg-vmhbadevs -l and identify the disk it should be /dev/sd<x> where x is any thing starting from . sda, sdb and sdc

Then run fdisk /dev/sd<x>

select 'n' to create a new partition.Follow the screen to use the co-ordinates for the partition.

select '' to change the partition type. You need to know the new partition number so selecting 'p'before this will help.

select the partition # and then change the partition type to 'fb' which is a VMFS patrtition.

Finally vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -S VMFS_volume_label partition_address (vmhba#.#.#.#)

Let me know if you need any further help.

-Surya