VM Storage Location path - Displays /vmfs/volumes/bunchofnumbers

[Brock]

Hello everyone.

I'm using ISCSI with a Storevault S500. Things are working fine but I have a question about the file structure. Both of my ESX servers display a path to the LUN of /vmfs/volumes/(bunchofnumbers). On the console when I browse to the LUN at /vmfs/volumes/ I am presented with four folders. One is the local storage, the other is the LUN, and then I have two folders that appear to have a name composed of hex characters. I can browse either of those folders and they appear to be the same folders as the local storage and LUN. Can someone explain why this is the case? Should I be concerned?

I did some cleanup of old vm files by browsing to /vmfs/volumes/VM Storage and after a few minutes the new available disk space did show up on the VI client, which again is pointing to the hex name, not VM Storage. So to me it seems that things are working.

Thanks!

[Patrick_Miller · Accepted solution]

There will always be two folders for each data store, one is the actual path (The "hex"), and the other is the friendly name you specify for the volume using the GUI.

Nothing to be worried about

[Jae_Ellers]

You can also see this directly by logging in to the console or shell and

cd /vmfs/volumes

ls -l

You will see the links between the GUID and "friendly names". You can control friendly names via VC. I believe the links are validated every time the system boots.

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[Brock]

Thanks for the information! One day I'll be comfortable with ESX/Linux!