Planning Partitions for ESX Server

[ly9cs]

I have been looking for recomendation for diskplaning for ESX 3

I have seen the kb1506. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1506

Is it the same for ESX 3.X?

[dkfbp]

This is how we partition our ESX servers:

/boot size 250 type ext3 as primary

/ size 4096 type ext3 as primary

swap size 1500 type swap as primary

/home size 4096 type ext3

/var size 2048 type ext3

/var/log size 2048 type ext3

/tmp size 2048 type ext3

/usr size 2048 type ext3

/opt size 2048 type ext3

/vmimages Size 8192 type ext3

VMFS_LOCAL – REST OF DISKSPACE type vmfs3

vmkcore size 100 type vmkcore

[MR-T]

There are different requirements now.

Look at page 181 onwards here:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_installation_guide.pdf

You'll get 100's of different opinions, but the previous guys recommendations are fine.

Message was edited by:

MR-T

[Texiwill]

Hello,

On ESX v3, a /home partition is not all that useful to the running of ESX unless you have a lot of user specific non-VM related files.

The ones to consider as there own layout are the filesystems in which lots of large files can reside. Those are:

/vmimages -> Location for ISO/FLP files. Some are there by default, but you can add your own. It is the only part of the local disk that can be seen by the VMs and only if you are using it as a source for a CDROM/Floppy image. (I use a min of 10GBs)

/var -> mainly due to /var/core directory which can get VERY large when you have issues. (I use a min of 4GBs)

/var/log -> All logfiles, 2GB files when there are problems is not uncommon. (I use a min of 4GBs but often make this 10 or more GBs)

/ -> sufficient to hold the OS and all your 3rd party tools. (2.5GBs is usually sufficient)

/usr -> not 100% necessary but if you have quite a bit of local or 3rd party tools, it will not hurt. If you use this, it depends on your 3rd party tool sizes.

/opt -> same as /usr.

/tmp -> sufficient to hold all patch files 208 MBs so far. 2-4GBs is normal.

swap -> 2GBs is the maximum size of a single swap partition (You can add more swap partitions if you desire). Generally 1.6GB is sufficient.

Best regards,

Edward

[ly9cs]

Thanks a lot !