Adding 2.5 TB DAS to ESX 3.5

[N_Cartwright]

Greetings - I'm new to ESX and I have a 2.5TB DAS that i'd like to add to VMWare - however - when I go to add storage it says Total Size is 2.45 and then available is only 463GB - The size of a single drive. Thoughts??

[Hairyman]

VMware only supports 2TB Luns, try setting you LUN size just under this and create multiple LUNS

[N_Cartwright]

Thats what we thought - However - did i mention i'm very new at this :).

We have a MD1000 with the physical disks on a Dell 2950 - Open manage calls them Virtual Disks...i'm guessing LUN=Virtual Disk?

So if I create a 2TB Virtual DIsk (LUN) and a .5TB Virtual Disk (LUN) can I span a 2.5TB volume across the two? If so how ?

[mcowger]

No, the maximum size of a VMFS is 2.0TB

Besides, you dont want a volume that size, you will end up with lock contention issues. Better would be 5 500GB LUNs (in this case, yes, Virtual Disk = LUN).

--Matt

[N_Cartwright]

Fantastic - You guys rock for the quick response.

Let me add that our intent is to have a total datastore size of 2.5TB. If I'm reading you correctly it would be better to create 500GB LUNs - would I then add and extent to that datastore to get the total 2.5TB?

Also what are the advantages of having smaller LUNs?

[mcowger]

No, you probably want 5 datastores of 500GB each. Unless you plan to have just a couple LARGE VMs, you will end up with lock contention issues from having too many VMs per datastore.

--Matt

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Your post has been moved to the VI: ESX 3.5 forum.

Dave Mishchenko

VMware Communities User Moderator

[TomHowarth]

Althought Extents are supported, it is not considered best practice to use them. as Mcowger says keep your LUNs lean and mean. you will reduce the risks of contention.

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Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator