esx 3.0.2 automatic partition order

[roland775]

Hi

Maybe a stupid question and was already asked before, but...

I have to install many esx servers and I want to configure the same partitioning for the esx OS on every machine.

But sometimes the installer assigns for example like that:

/dev/sda1 p 99M /boot

/dev/sda2 p 4.9G /

/dev/sda2 p 512M swap

/dev/sda4 p .. extended

/dev/sda5 e 64G vmfs3

/dev/sda6 e 20G /data

/dev/sda7 e 2.0G /var/log

/dev/sda8 e 100M vmkcore

And on another host (same Disk, same Model...) he sorts like this:

/dev/sda1 p 99M /boot

/dev/sda2 p 4.9G /

/dev/sda2 p 512M swap

/dev/sda4 p .. extended

/dev/sda5 e 64G vmfs3

/dev/sda6 e 2.0G /var/log

/dev/sda7 e 20G /data

/dev/sda8 e 100M vmkcore

sda6 and sda7 is flipped...

He does that himself and I cannot find out how the hell he sorts that... I thought it is sorted by partition size but not really...

It's mainly a cosmetic thing but I like to have the same configuration on every machine.

Any ideas?

Thank you

roland

[cemetric]

The best/easiest solution to create identical setups on identical hardware is using scripted install, this way it should look all the same.

You can find a how to in the Installation and Upgrade Guide () page 93.

In the script you can define the disks/partitions like you want.

[osde_info]

we've got the same problem and our solution (for only 4 esx servers) is to manually edit / modify all the "automatic" partitions to our "standard"

plus we also like to create a separate 100G /vmimages partition for NFS backups

regards

clive (aka osde.info)

points=prizes

so please click helpful answer or correct answer when appropriate

(but where's the unhelpful button ?)

[roland775]

scripting installation is a way, yes. However our servers are spread around the world and differ a little, for example the IO cards.

But maybe a basic setup could be an idea.

@clive: Do you edit it afterwards or during the installation process? There I also can edit it almost completely, but especially the additional partitions which have to be placed in the extended partition (all /dev/sda5 and higher) are sorted by the installer in a confusing way. I first thought he sorts by size, but on one machine it did not... =8-O

So is it possible to control this assigning completely manually?

regards

roland

[osde_info]

at installation time ! but i might have had to do a lot of playing around adding, deleting, deleting all

PS the force as primary checkbox is useful !

regards

clive (aka osde.info)

points=prizes

so please click helpful answer or correct answer when appropriate

(but where's the unhelpful button ?)