Show current partitions and their sizes

[PatrickWE]

Hi,

what is the way to view current partition on ESX 3.0.1 and their size...

We have an ESX 3.0.1 server and want to install a another, but we want to give the same partition sizes, since they are working pretty well for us...

Thanks \!!!

[oreeh]

login to the console and execute "df -h" or "vdf -h"

[MR-T]

vdf -h

[PatrickWE]

thanks, here is what I have in the current ESX boxes, anything to improve upon ( this config came from treads in this forum )...

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda2 4.0G 366M 3.4G 10% /

/dev/sda1 244M 29M 202M 13% /boot

/dev/sda7 2.0G 33M 1.9G 2% /home

none 131M 0 131M 0% /dev/shm

/dev/sda8 2.0G 33M 1.9G 2% /tmp

/dev/sda6 2.0G 1.2G 708M 64% /usr

/dev/sda5 4.0G 595M 3.2G 16% /var

/vmfs/devices 800G 0 800G 0% /vmfs/devices

Could not open /vmfs/volumes/39466407-26e20dfb.

Error: No such file or directory

/vmfs/volumes/457bda8f-2bfa6282-7c22-00188b430ed8

392G 285G 106G 72% /vmfs/volumes/storage1

Thanks \!!!

[oreeh · Accepted solution]

anything to improve upon ( this config came from treads in this forum )...

There are many different opinions regarding partition sizes... seems fine to me

[MR-T]

That looks good to me.

I always create a /opt partition, but it's personal preference and it's only there to prevent HA logs or Director stuff running away with space.

[AJenks]

I'm looking to do the same thing (install a new host with the same settings as an existing one), but I am having trouble determinining from this output things like 1) The format of each partition 2) The size of the vmkcore 3) Which partitions are marked as primary and 4) Whether the parition size was fixed or "allow to a maximum of" as in the install screen.

Is there a way to determine this ? as I can't determine this information from the vdf -h output.

Thanks,

[oreeh]

1) The format of each partition

All of them except swap, vmkcore and vmfs use the ext3 file system

2) The size of the vmkcore

100MB

3) Which partitions are marked as primary

/boot

/

vmfs

4) Whether the parition size was fixed or "allow to a maximum of" as in the install screen

All (except vmfs) should be fixed

[azn2kew]

The below are my current ESX 3.0.2 Enterprise server build partitions. /OPT use for High Availability and recommended if utilize HA. Please see attach .jpg for details and hope this helps.

[AJenks]

Thanks. I gather that these are the recommended settings, but I am not sure how to determine from a server that has already been installed, that these were the settings that were used. For instance, how would I check the size of an exisiting vmkcore partition ?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Do this by logging into the Service Console and issue the command 'fdisk -l' the vmkcore partition is of ID 'fc' and VMFS is of ID 'fb'. You have to do some math but this is the raw partition information.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky, author of the forthcoming 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', publishing January 2008, (c) 2008 Pearson Education. Available on Rough Cuts at http://safari.informit.com/9780132302074

[oreeh]

To check the partition sizes simply execute

"fdisk -l devicenode" where deivcenode represents the disk device

Example

# fdisk -l /dev/cciss/c0d0

Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 73.3 GB, 73372631040 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8920 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 * 1 32 257008+ 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 33 1944 15358140 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 1945 6411 35881177+ fb Unknown

/dev/cciss/c0d0p4 6412 8920 20153542+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5 6412 7176 6144831 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6 7177 7941 6144831 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p7 7942 8144 1630566 82 Linux swap

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8 8145 8908 6136798+ 83 Linux

/dev/cciss/c0d0p9 8909 8920 96358+ fc Unknown

the blocks column gives you the size of the partition in blocks (1 block = 1024 bytes)

In this case the vmkcore partition is 96358 blocks (roughly 96MB - calculated using the "standard" 1000K=1M, 1000M=1G)

To know which partition is used from which mount point execute

"mount"

Example (from the same ESX host as above)

# mount

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 on / type ext3 (rw)

none on /proc type proc (rw)

none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

usbdevfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)

/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)

/dev/cciss/c0d0p6 on /opt type ext3 (rw)

none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

/dev/cciss/c0d0p5 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)

/dev/cciss/c0d0p8 on /var/log type ext3 (rw)