Failed to update disk partition information

[Fedibeka]

Hello

we have esx3 rc2 installed. I have deleted the default vmfs3 partition to free space for creating ext3 partition /dev/sda3 (for p2v vmdks). Now I want to revert back, I have deleted this ext3 partition and I would like to create the vmfs3 partition again.

Trying with the "Configuration/Storage/Add storage" give an error message:

failed to update disk partition information

The free space is selectable via creating the disk/lun.

I have tried with

vmkfstools -C vmfs3 /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:0:0:3

and also

vmkfstools -C vmfs3 vmhba0:0:0:3

command, but

Error: bad file descriptor

I have rebooted after changing part. information.

Any idea?

Thanks

Adam

[admin]

Did you set partition type to fb?

[Fedibeka]

I will try soon. What does fb mean exactly? What kind of partition?

[CHogan]

0xfb[/b] is the partition type for a VMFS partition.

[ChrisRu]

I have the some problem. If i set the partition type via fdisk to fb this would recognized as unknown type.

[mrichardson_uk]

Hi SV

I too have tried to fdisk using "fb" partition type, as part of the procedure for aligning the disks but it comes back as "unknown" I have listed all the partition types using the fdisk command with the "l" switch and fb does not appear to be listed.

Any ?

Regards

Mark

[admin]

Thats fine - "fb" will show up as unknown in the list of partition codes. Thats because fdisk was written much before VMFS came into being, and so they didn't add VMFS to the list of recognized partition codes at that time. One of these days, we will probably ask the opensource guys to fix it.

[mrichardson_uk]

Much appreciated SV, thanks. We never used to get a message back in the service console saying "unknown" before hence the slight confusion.

Regards

Mark

[lorio]

I'm having the same Error message in VIC. Just did the install yesterday and left 262gb of free space to do the VMFS 3 partition with VIC on this LocalSCSI disk.

Is there a way. What was described here gets me confused...

1. Go in fdisk

2. Create partition of free space as a fd partition

3. Then what? Go back in VIC and try to create the VMFS3? (I've tried but it says there is no more room to create the VMFS3 partition)

Help please....

[swethog]

I had this same problem and even though the rescan picked up the LUNs and they were 100% available, I still had to reboot the ESX server before I could add them in via VC.

[daniel-san]

I created four LUNs in a EVA3000 and one of them went write protected. I´m don´t know why because I´m pretty sure that I created all four exactly the same way.

But i generates the same error messages.

/Daniel

[lorio]

Still having the same issue with it, it's the local scsi attached disk, with 263 GB left on it.

Please help

[alb]

I had a similar problem today. It turned out that the luns were second hand solaris volumes. When they were deleted re-created and the ESX rescanned, everything went back to normal.

Al.

[--EasY--]

Also having this problem. It appears that the problem is the disk: Where I try to add a VMFS3 is on the same disk as where ESX3.0 is installed. I tried a test setup, when a VMFS3 is available on that drive, you \*can* extend this vmfs3 with the empty space. However, if there is no vmfs3 at all, it appears impossible to use this space as a vmfs3 volume.

any help is appreciated, have not been able to find any solution! Diskspace is just sitting there being useless.

[bsnell]

I stumbled across this thread via a google search while having the same issue. The fix that worked for me was somewhat of a "oh duh" moment. The partition I wanted to add was already mounted. After a quick umount, it worked just fine.