ESX partitionning

[Fpwr]

Hi Guys,

I'm working on the following partitionning design for ESX 3.5 Update 2 servers

- 1 local partition for / (take all the space on the disk 68 Gb)

- 1 local partition for swap (512 Mb)

- 1 shared (SAN) partition for VMKCORE for every ESX hosts (1600 Mb).

I read the official VMware recommandations http://pubs.vmware.com/vi35u2/install/install_esx_partitioning.10.2.html but I would like to know if my partition design is officially supported by VMware ....

Thanks for your feedback

Regards

[Jasemccarty]

You really need a local datastore as well.

As a carry over from the 2.5 days, I typically give 1.6GB for my swap space.

Here is the partitioning I use for my ESX hosts:

Partition Type	Mount Point	Partition	Size	Description
Primary	/boot	ext3	256 MB	Change for additional space for upgrades
Primary	N/A	swap	1600 MB	Change for maximum service console swap size
Extended	/	ext3	5120 - 10240 MB	Change for additional space in root
Extended	/var	ext3	4096 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with log files
Extended	/tmp	ext3	2048 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with temporary files
Extended	/opt	ext3	2048 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with VMware HA log files
Extended	/home	ext3	1024 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with agent / user files
Extended		vmkcore	100 MB
Extended		vmfs3	Remaining Space

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[penghaug]

hi,

Your configuration will probably work, but you could take a look at the vmreference card for best practice regarding partitioning and other things.

-Pål-André

[weinstein5]

VMware should support is as long as it is sized appropriately -

• Your swap needs to be twice the size of memory assigned to the service console - so unless you are planning to reduce the memory to 256 MB, by default it is 272 MB, which I do not recommend - I would recommend maximizing the size of the swap space to 1.6 gb so if you need to increase service console memory you can easily

• You will actually need 16 100 MB partitions not a single 1600 MB partition - this is per your link

• you will need a /boot partition

• and some where you will need a VMFS partition -

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[Fpwr]

Weinstein,

Just to confirm, when you said "You will actually need 16 x 100 MB partitions not a single 1600 MB partition - this is per your link" it<s for VMKCORE partitions ?

One more things: by not creating dedicated partition /var/log I expose myself to overfilling the / , but I mitigate it with the disk space 68 gb + Logrotate tool. Again my question: is it supported by vmware ^

Thanks

Regards

Julien

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Yes it is for the vmkcore partition

David Weinstein,

A new message was posted in the thread "ESX partitionning":

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1161231#1161231

Author : Fpwr

Profile : http://communities.vmware.com/people/Fpwr

Message:

[dconvery]

David -

This is news to me....

Why would I need sixteen 100MB vmkcorepartitions? I thought the vmkcore partition was for a core dump of the kernel? not the swap contents. I usually make a 1600MB swap and a 100MB vmkcore.

I actually up my /boot to 500MB, but that is a throw-back to RedHat training.

Jase's table is pretty spot-on.

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[dconvery]

Jase -

I actually stopped recommending a local VMFS unless the customer wants to store the VM .vswp files there. It is not needed any more for MSCS clusters and I find that customers will accidentally create VMs there. Then they lose the benefits of DRS/HA, etc. I know svmotion can cure that issue, but I think it is better to avoid it than to fix it later.

Thoughts??

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[Jasemccarty]

The two primary reasons I leave some VMFS space on my hosts are:

1. Gives me a little flexibility if I want to play around

2. Every time I install ESX without a local datastore, it gripes at me

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[dconvery]

AHHHH. Most of my installs are automated, so no complaints about it from the installer.

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[Jasemccarty]

Yeah, when you have 10 hosts, you don't do many automated installs.

ESX 3.5 (managed)

3 IBM x445 2.0GHz 8-way 32GB RAM

1 IBM x445 2.7GHz 8-way 32GB RAM

4 HP DL580G5 2.93GHz 4-way Quad 128GB RAM

ESXi 3.5 (unmanaged)

2 IBM x440 1.9GHz 8-way 32GB RAM

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[dconvery]

WOW... Your electric bill must be lovely! I do all of my testing on my laptop using WS6.5 and ESX/ESXi as a VM.

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[Jasemccarty]

Well the DL580G5 boxes are rated at about 4 kilowatts.

But when you can run 100 guests with total cpu/memory utilization at 30%/30%, it is less than paying for 100 boxes that would be rated at 200-400 watts.

I don't recall what the power specs are on the IBMs.

That's just the small set of racks in my datacenter.

:smileycool:

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[dconvery]

For some reason, I always asumed you wre a consultant. I never actuall READ the "about" part of your blog...

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[Jasemccarty]

Nope.

Not a consultant during the day, just a little on the side.

I work for one of the big 3 credit bureaus.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[dconvery]

See what happens when you assume... Loved the book, btw. Picked it up a while ago.

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[Jasemccarty]

Awesome! Thanks for the good review!

I kind of got brought into it late... and still wrote chapters 3,5,6,7,8, & 13, in about 6 weeks.

Steve and David were great to work with, and were a lot of help. Wouldn't mind doing another book with them.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[dconvery]

OK, back on track with the thread! David W. is probably still sleeping, I think he is a left coaster. What are your thoughts on his "16 x 100MB" vmkcore partitions?

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein

[Jasemccarty]

Well... I've never heard of 16 vmkcore partitions. Only 1. Maybe he was referring to something documented in the link.

With that being said... I'm not sure where he was going with that.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[dconvery]

Weinstein,

Just to confirm, when you said "You will actually need 16 x 100 MB partitions not a single 1600 MB partition - this is per your link" it<s for VMKCORE partitions ?

One more things: by not creating dedicated partition /var/log I expose myself to overfilling the / , but I mitigate it with the disk space 68 gb + Logrotate tool. Again my question: is it supported by vmware ^

Thanks

Regards

Julien

Julien -

If you look at the table that Jase provided, you will see a /var partition. This is because not all logs are actually written to /var/log. So the separate /var partition will cover all of the logs. You will also see that there is a /opt partition.Some agents, like BMC will actually write to /opt.

Dave

************************

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein