Quick question on ESX3.5 and Vcenter 2.5

[Naik]

Hello,

We are currently running Vcenter 2.5 and ESX 3.0.3 and have a problem where when we try to create a VM in vcenter it tells us "File is larger than maximum size supported".

This problem has nothing to do with datastore or anything as we have worked extensively with vmware and they said there is known bug and that we should upgrade to esx 3.5 while a resolution is researched by vmware engineering.

So we are planning to goto ESX 3.5 to resolve this issue and have installed one esx 3.5 host which did resolve the issue. But before we go full fledged on ESX 3.5 with Vcenter 2.5 wanted to see if there are any other issues in that configuration that we should know. Is there any issue with running ESX 3.5 and Vcenter 2.5 configuration that we should know of.

Your help is appreciated in advance.

N

[weinstein5]

Even though you can manage a 3.0.x ESX server with VC 2.5 the preferred rev is ESX 3.5 so you should not have any problems -

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[derekn · Accepted solution]

I would comb through the release notes to determine if there are specific issues in regards to your environment.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/vi3_esx35u3_rel_notes.html

In general, I have not witness'd any specific issues that would influence you to not upgrade.

[RParker]

We are currently running Vcenter 2.5 and ESX 3.0.3 and have a problem where when we try to create a VM in vcenter it tells us "File is larger than maximum size supported"

That's because your block size is too small on the VMFS volume. Block size determines largest single vmdk file you can use, block size of 1 is 256GB size limit.

In order to increase the block size, you have to move your VM's off, delete the vmfs volume, and re-create it. Then when you create a new vmfs volume you have to change the default block size to something bigger like 2, 4, or 8 meg. That will allow you create 512Gb, 1024 (1TB) or Maximum of 2TB files.