Using a removable disk (RD1000) on VM workstation

[bstone]

Has anyone found a way to utilize a removable disk drive on a VM workstation. I am running w2k3 on the host and w2k3 on the virtual. The RD1000 is an internal SATA device. The machine is a Dell Precision 490. It is seen as a removable drive on the host machine. The idea is to use the removable as a substitute for a tape when using Arcserve in a teaching environment. It works great on the host. I can't see it on the virtual.

[alelievre]

Try to add a Hard Disk to your VM whith the option "Use a physical disk" and then select your SATA device.

[KevinG]

SATA disk are not supported physical disks in a virtual machine configuration. Only IDE or SCSI

[Peter_vm]

"Not supported" does not mean that is not going to work.

[optikconnex]

I am trying to do the same thing. I have ESXi installed on a dell server. I added the device as a new datastore, then added a hard drive to the

vm and booted. Then went into device manager and to manage disks. I formatted the disk(rd1000) and made it a drive letter. The issue I have is

when I try to eject the drive and put in another drive. I get an error in the VM something about a file lock and it makes me reboot the vm, which will

only successfully boot on if I put the original disk back into the rd1000. VM create file locks for multiple purposes. What I need is to figure out how to

correctly eject the disk so that I can put in another as if it were a tape backup scenario.

[YodasBrother]

Here is a an update to the installrd1000.exe file that has worked on a Windows 2008 Server for us. It installs an updated service that will allow easier ejecting. After installing it there is also a registry fix in the programfiles/rd1000 folder. When you run it, it allows the cartridge to be ejected if there is less than 1 mb/sec activity on the drive. I have a question for you. I would like to use another internal sata rd1000 drive with esxi 4.0, but I cannot figure out how to add it to a virtual server as you have done. Can you provide better instructions to add it as a datastore. Thanks.

[optikconnex]

1. When I get a chance I will write up some instructions on how to add another RD1000.

2. After installing the software, I ran RDXutility.exe from the rd1000\utilities folder but it doesn't show any devices.

3. How are you suppose to eject? Do I have to do something with software first or should I just be able to hit the eject button on the RD1000 device?

[YodasBrother]

There is a bat file called enablebesteffort.bat in the c:\progam

files(86)\rd1000\service folder. When you run it, it sets a registry key

so that the drive can be ejected with the push button. This fix is for

the problem where the drive thinks it is busy so it will not eject. In

my case, I have to push the eject button one time after a reboot and

then backup exec will eject it. I am not sure why the drive is not

showing up in the utility. The server that I use is just a win2008

standard server, no vmware. Maybe reboot could help.

[optikconnex]

Oh, now I have the feeling since I am using it in a virtual machine it will not recognize it because in device manager it is not seen as a dell type of hardware, rather a virtual scsi device. Anyway I will hit the eject button and see what happens. One can only hope this works.

[YodasBrother]

Did you actually see your rd1000 in my computer or how did you access it

before? I am getting a sinking feeling thatthis drive will not work with

vmware.

[optikconnex]

Yes, it shows up as any other drive and you can access it. The problem I had before is that when I hit eject that VM cried because it lost a hard drive which is was storing a lock file on and then made me reboot.

[YodasBrother]

I am emailing the technician from prostoresystems and see if he can shed

some light on this. He may not respond as they usually do not deal with

the endusers directly. He had told me earlier that he was using virtual

os's to test with, so I figured he got an rd1000 working somehow.

[Vapon]

we are trying to do the same, has anyone found a solution yet? we are running vmware esxi and the RD1000 is internal and the machine is vmware certified so guessing it should work somehow.

[JTLowry]

Don't know if this has been resolved, but I was able to get my RD1000 SATA device attached to my VM running Windows Server 2008.

I currently run a Dell PowerEdge T300 with ESXi 5.

Though I will admit, it's got to be seen by the host O/S.  Will explain my steps, since I just got done configuring this server, and hopefully will help, or at least give you some ideas as to where to proceed.

Before I begin, I did all the steps that any IT "should of" done..   Made sure BIOS was updated, updated all firmware for my devices (using a Win2k8 base install).  Also went into the BIOS and made sure that my on-board SATA was turned on, and that it was not the default boot device.

(Won't bore you with the install of this server, since it probably won't apply to you)

The key information, which I got from setting up a custom ZFS vm, is utilizing a not so documented feature in ESX known as Raw Device Mappings.  I been using these since ESX3.5, and they prove to be a life saver for integrating a NAS/SAN within ESX (anyways)....

Simply put, this is done from the Host Shell so enable SSH, log in as the root user..    You'll be creating a RDM, and to be neat about it, I like to put them in my datastore, makes it easier to find.

cd /vmfs/volumes/{datastore name}

mkdir RDMs   <-----  then create the 'RDMs' folder

cd RDMs

Ok, now that your in that folder you will want to find the drive by typing:   ls /dev/disks/ -l

In my case it actually showed up as a RD-1000 disk, and what you need is the VML identifier for the disk...  Basically  it will be

vml.(really long number) -> (other stuff) RD1000

You of course need the vml.(really long number) part.  With this you can utilize the vmkfstools command to create a physical RDM.  The command I use was:

vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/vml.(really long number) (space) PRDM-RD1000.vmdk -a lsilogic

Please note you can replace the "PRDM-RD1000.vmdk", since it's what I use to find my RD-1000 drive for the VM...

Once you type enter, you can type ls, and see your new RDM..    Now you can logout of the Shell, go to your client, disable SSH (it's what I do)

Edit setting on your VM,   Click "Add", Select "Hard Disk", Click "Next",   Now at the "Select a Disk" window,  Select "Use an existing virtual disk", Click "Next",   Browse to the path of your newly created RDM....   Click "Next",

Configure advance options...   and Finish..    You should have access to your RD-1000, since I now have access to mine...

Of course, I can't take all the credit for this...  Since I came across a web page that explained how to do RDM's back when I was making my freenas VM with 12TB of ZFS goodness.   So, the link to that page is:

http://vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php

I simply figured I would give it a try with the RD-1000 drive, since I noticed it when I was adding my RDM's for the NAS vm...    Oh, and slightly off topic, but good advice..   If you do create a NAS system within ESX using RDM's.   Name the RDM's with the Hard Drives Slot location, and Serial Number..  It has proven to be extremely helpful with a drive fails.  Since SMART returns the serial number most of the time...   Example of one of mine:

PRDM-S3-(serial#).vmdk

Hope that helps.