Creating FDisk Partition

[SnSbe]

I am trying to add a storage using my vi console. The virtual console can see the lun just fine but  at the end I get the following error message:" Failed to update disk's partition information". I have searched the web and tried to apply just about all the fixes that was listed but I could solve the problem.

Fdisk -l will not list the disk.

esxcfg -a will see the lun.

esxcfg -m will not list the lun.

I have attached the screen shot.

I am running esx host 3.5. The LUN on our SAN.

I hope someone can help me.

Snsbe

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

• what type of SAN do you have (FC, iSCSI)?
  
• is the LUN presented in read/write mode (with correct permissions)?
  
• what size is the LUN?
  

André

[SnSbe]

The type of SAN is FC.

Where do I check for the read/write permission?

The size of the Lun is 1.46 TB.

Snsbe

[a_p_]

The permissions (r/w) can be configured on the storage side, however I don't think this is the cause in your case with FC LUNs.

I think the LUN has some "dirty" data at the position where the partition table is usually stored. Follow KB article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008886 to clear this part of the LUN.

André

[SnSbe]

Thank you for sending me the link to the article.

.

I will follow the article and will post the update.

I am also attaching the screen shot in a attachment.

The lun ID I am having problem accessing is vmhba1.0.1

and vmhba1.1.0.

We had our san failure last week. The drives were replaced and according our SAN admin the Raidgrp was repaired.

We had no problem accessing those LUNs before. The other two LUNs are in the same SAN location and the server can connect them with no problem.

Since I cannot access the LUN using fdisk -l what is my next option?

I appreciate your help.

Snsbe

[a_p_]

Just to make sure I understand this correctly.

Should the two LUNs - which you don't see - contain valid VMFS datastores with data on them or are these new LUNs which have to be formatted with VMFS?

If they can be formatted, you could try to temporarily add them as RAW devices to an existing VM, create a partition on them and delete it again (this will create a new partition table on those LUNs). Then remove the RDMs from the VM and try to create the datastore on them. Does that work?

André

[SnSbe]

When SAN crashed last month all the data was restored from tape and new LUN(Temporary) was assigned to our ESX host.

The hardware is replaced and the old Raidgrp was brought online and reassign to our ESX host.

I am to re-attached these two lun and move data from the temporary LUN.

Since the raidgrp was not re-created the data still exist. But we do not need data from this LUN since we have restored all the data from the tape backup.

The LUNs still contain valid VMFS datastores with data on them. But I can format them since all data has been restored to the temporary LUN. The lun is longer visible in the datastore.  So how do I format them?

Snsbe

[a_p_]

Is there anything in the vmkernel log (/var/log/vmkernel) about the two LUNs. Maybe this can give us a hint on what's causing the LUNs not to show up as expected.

André

[MauroBonder]

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100982...

[SnSbe]

I was in the visual console and do see thoses luns when I add a raw device mapping.

I guess I am good then. I will go through  adding the raw device and format them using one of my vm.

Thank you so much for the info.

I will keep the group posted.

SNSBE

[SnSbe]

Its working now. Thank you so much for your help./

Snsbe