VMware Cloud Community
emp618
Contributor
Contributor

RDM unreadable in Win2k3

Hi

I have a RDM of a 1TB LUN in ESX 3.5 that is assigned to a Win2k3 guest. I go into Computer Management and the disk just shows up as unreadable meaning that I cannot partition or format the disk.

How can I format this or create a partition on it?

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4 Replies
VTorque
Contributor
Contributor

Is the disk initialised?

If not, you may just need to right click the actual disk in disk mangement (where it says Disk 0, Disk 1, etc) before you can partition or format it.

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emp618
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

I dont actually get an option to initialize the disk. When I right click, it just has properties and thats all I can choose from.

I'm thinking of rebooting the ESX servers just in case, but I cant seem to initialize, partition or format the RDM.

Am I correct in thinking that once a RDM disk has been added to a guest, you should simply be able to format the disk in the native partition format for that OS via the OS tools?

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VTorque
Contributor
Contributor

Thats correct - you should be able to use it just like you would if you'd just added another vmdk.

Is the LUN in Read-only or something maybe?

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

I would make sure the proper LUN is mapped to the VM as well. Check presentation, etc within the iSCSI server/SAN as well as check to make sure you have the proper LUN.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/

Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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