Cannot create a local datastore.

[alin43]

I'm new to ESX.

Just installed 3.0.2 new on a Dell 1950 with an internal SATA disk. Mostly default setting from the kickstart installation. However the typical "storage1" local datastore does not show in the list of datastores.

From VI client, if I attempt to "Add Storage", chose Disk/LUN, it would show me only vmhba0:0:0, and appears to create vmfs with a whole disk. (Luckily this fails).

From COS, the disk shows partition 5 is my datastore partition.

# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux

/dev/sda2 14 82 554242+ 82 Linux swap

/dev/sda3 83 719 5116702+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda4 720 9726 72348727+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/sda5 720 9459 70204018+ fb Unknown

/dev/sda6 9460 9713 2040223+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda7 9714 9726 104391 fc Unknown

WHEN I did the following (after searching through some archive) -

[[mailto:root@esx-2] vmfs]# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 vmhba0:0:0:5 -S storage1

Creating file system on "vmhba0:0:0:5" with blockSize 1048576 and volume label "storage1".

Successfully created new volume: 47822789-9a2f2990-b98e-0019b9f370f0

This appears to be successful -- EXCEPT that the datastore is not reported in VI client.

During all these my attempts, /vmfs/volumes never has any item shows up. /vmfs/devices/disks does see and show my disk /dev/sda.

Any suggestions/clues are much appreciated.

[christianZ]

What controller have you there - vmfs volumes on sata is not supported with 3.0.2 (if you have a sata controller) - that could be your issue, I think.

[Milton21]

Since the system has not been setup or put in use yet, and esx is an easy install. I would just reinstall ESX and make sure you are creating the VMFS volume during the install. With 3.5

[alin43]

Thank you for the answer. My system/internal disk is indeed SATA.

Sad to know that this is not supported.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Have you tried this with ESX 3.5? As posted by milton21, ESX 3.5 supports a few SAS controllers but works on a greater number of SATA controllers. What sort of controller does the host have?

[alin43]

Unfortunately this is intended as a reference platform, so it has to be kept at 3.0.2. Luckily I will have access to SAN storage where the real datastore to be located.

Thus it's only minor inconvinient/waste of resouces. Nothing I cannot tolerate with.

Thanks to all who responded.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If it has an LSI1068 controller, try it with the SATA drive as part of a RAID array rather than as a JBOD.

[jhanekom]

According to the sources I could find on Google, the PE1950 ships standard with an LSI 1068 SAS adapter. The LSI 1068 SAS adapter is listed on the ESX 3.5 HCL, so in theory it should work.

In the search, I did happen on a thread on the VMware forums that suggests you should upgrade the firmware on the controller to avoid problems.

[alin43]

Indeed!

# lspci | grep 1068

02:08.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic LSI1068 (rev 01)

# vmkload_mod -s mptscsi_2xx

Using /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/mptscsi_2xx.o

heap_initial int, description "Initial heap size allocated for the driver."

heap_max int, description "Maximum attainable heap size for the driver."

mpt_dv int, description " DV Algorithm: enhanced = 1, basic = 0 (default=1)"

mpt_width int, description " Max Bus Width: wide = 1, narrow = 0 (default=1)"

mpt_factor short, description " Sync Factor (default=0x08)"

mpt_saf_te int, description " Force enabling SEP Processor: enable=1 (default=0)"

mpt_pt_clear int, description " Clear persistency table: enable=1 (default=0)"

mpt_pq_filter int, description " Enable peripheral qualifier filter: enable=1 (default=0)"

mpt_qas_disable int, description " Disable QAS Support (default=0)"

mpt_can_queue int, description " Max IO depth per controller (default=127)"

mpt_sg_tablesize int, description " Max SG count per IO (default=128)"

mpt_reply_depth int, description " Reply buffers per controller (default=64)"

mpt_chain_alloc_percent int, description " SG Chain buffer allocation percent (default=100)"

It is interesting in the way that I can create a volume on the partition but not able to use it. I will check to find out what firmware update may resolve the problem.