"Maximum File Size" parameter

[SF1976]

Hi,

I need to change a "Maximum File Size" parameter on my ESX3.5 server to create a virtual disk for Oracle data storage, who can help me???????

[ctfoster]

By default ESX uses a 1M block size which limits you to having a maximum file size of 256GB in any single virtual machine.

By changing the block size of your vmfs partition, you can increase the maximum amount of disk you can have.

A 2M block size yields a maximum disk size of 512 GB, 4M yields 1TB, and 8M yields 2TB. There is no support for anything larger under vmfs3. The sweet spot for vmfs volumes is normally about 700Gb.

You don't say how big a file you need to create.

[SF1976]

I should create a file a 420 Gb virtual disk on ESX 3.5 storage

[ctfoster]

The block size will need to be 2m to host this file. You will need to use vmkfstools to reformat the partition.

The command is:

vmkfstools --createfs vmfs3 --blocksize 2M vmhba0:0:0:3

Just like any other formatting procedure, this will destroy any data on the partition.

Therefore you have to move your VM's before you do this. The "vmhba0:0:0:3″ is where you specify which partition to reformat.

You can get that information from the storage section in the configuration tab of the Virtual Infrastructure Client.

[patrickds]

You don't really need to use vmkfstools.

In host configuration tab of the VI client, go into the storage section, remove the vmfs volume and recreate it with the bigger blocksize.