help adding 2 disks to - 2 VM's

[vcpguy]

i am trying to add the 2 disks to the 2 Vm's. After reading some posts,...I have a idea about it.

Steps

1. On Vm1 added 2 disks with different virtual device node, when I try to change the setting for the SCSi controller to virtua, it gives error message - invalid configuration for Drive 0. Not, sure what needs to be done to fix this problem ?

2. Once the above problem is fixed, I need to add the same disks, to the VM 2.

Thanks

[Troy_Clavell]

are you trying to set up a cluster?

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/vi3_35_25_u1_mscs.pdf

[vcpguy]

I went through the file.

1) I have created 2 extra disks. I used this command to make the disks vmkfstools -c 10g -d eagerzeroedthick -a lsilogic disk.vmdk

2) I added this disk to the VM

3) I gave it a different virtual device node.

4) But, when I select the SCSI controller 1 and make it to Virtual, it gives me error message - Invalid configuration for device 0.

Any idea, where I am going wrong ?

[nick_couchman]

Go back in to the VM settings and make sure SCSI Controller 0 is set for no sharing (None) and that SCSI Controller 1 is set to either Virtual or Physical.

[vcpguy]

I have checked the settings for the SCSI controller 0 - It is set to none.

But, when I try to change the settings for the SCSI controller 1 to virtual it gives me error message - Invalid configuration for drive 0. The controller type is LSI logic.

[nick_couchman]

Did you try "-d thick" instead of "-d eagarzeroedthick"?

[vcpguy]

Yes, i tried with the thich option, and still ti does not work? I wonder is this a bug in VMware product ?

Thanks

[nick_couchman]

Did you verify that your SCSI Controllers are set up as LSI Logic controllers and not BusLogic?

I was able to do this successfully on ESXi 3.5 last night, so I'm not sure what's going on. What about any other messages listed on the Events tab of the ESX host?

[vcpguy]

Yes, for the new hard disk the SCSI controller is set to LSI logic. Adn the event tab says reconfigure the VM. and the tasks says, Invalid configuration for device 1.

Thanks

[nick_couchman]

And there are no other events or no details for that event that indicate any more detailed reason for why it isn't working?

[vcpguy]

Yes sir, U are right.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Please post your vmx file in order for us to help. Are you trying to do CiB or CLuster across multiple hosts? RDM is a much better way to go than using VMDKs.

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.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

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

[SquareVM]

Has this issue been resolved?

I'm also having this same issue on 4 different ESX 3.5 Update 3 Build 123629 servers and 1 ESXi 3.5 Update 3 Build 123629 server. Both have no extra patches installed. These servers only have local SCSI drives that are in a RAID 5 config - no external, shared storage. All VMs and extra virual drives are on the servers' local storage.

My steps are:

1. Logging onto a command session of an ESX (and ESXi) server as root and creating a virtual disk with the following command:
   
   vmkfstools -d eagerzeroedthick -a lsilogic -c 1G /vmfs/volumes/storage1/SHARED-DRIVES/test-disk.vmdk

2. Then I open an existing 2003 Standard Server VM's setting dialogs and add the virtual disk to the VM by connecting it to a separate SCSI controller that what the VM operating system disk is connected to . This works OK.
   
   My OS VM disk file is located at /vmfs/volumes/storage1/<hostname>/<hostname>.vmdk

3. Then I open the VM's settings again and set the new hard disks SCSI controller's "SCSI Bus Sharing" to "Virtual" and select the OK button. Then I get the "Invalid configuration for device '0'." error pop-up message.

Is this supported in ESX or ESXi 3.5 Update 3 Build 123629? Am I doing something wrong?

This used to work for me on ESX 3.01. ... 😐

[SquareVM]

I believe that OlivR in discussion http://communities.vmware.com/message/1068640#1068640 found my issue.

When I had a snapshot of my VM, I could not change the extra virtual disk's "SCSI Bus Sharing" to "Virtual" in the VM's settings. When I deleted my snapshot, I was able to set "SCSI Bus Sharing" to "Virtual". This means that I cannot take a snapshot of a VM with extra virtual disks like for a MS cluster. 😐

I know a snapshot cannot be taken while a VM's "SCSI Bus Sharing" setting is set to "Virtual", but with ESX 3.01, I used to switch the "SCSI Bus Sharing" setting over to "None", take a snapshot, and then switch "SCSI Bus Sharing" back over to "Virtual" before booting up the cluster again. This worked fine in 3.01, but in 3.5 it seems like a snapshot cannot exist for MS cluster VMs or VMs that need to use a "Virtual" "SCSI Bus Sharing" setting. .... right??????

Is this a bug in ESX 3.5 that will be fixed? I need to be able to take snapshots of my MS clustered VMs and use them!