VMFS volumes

[269083]

Hi guys,

I have a problem on my system and i need some advised.

So my system have 5 server. At first, Server was installed ESX 5.0, after i upgrade to 6.5 then i have a warning from vcenter. : "Deprecated VMFS volume(s) found on the host. Please consider upgrading volume(s) to the latest version". I checked VMFS on datastore then i realized VMFS on local datastore is VMFS 5 and VMFS on storage is VMFS 3. So what do i want to resolved this problem?

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

VMFS-3 is indeed deprecated in vSphere 6.5. while you can continue to read and write to it, you cannot create new ones. It's recommended that you migrate your data off that datastore and reformat it as VMFS-5 or 6.

[269083]

Hi Daphnissov,

Volumes have VMFS-3 are volumes on IBM-V3000 storage. I still create VMs or copy data to this volumes. I want to ask if i upgrade VMFS from 3 -> 5, all data on datastore will be kept or formated?

Thanks for reply my question!

[admin]

Upgrading from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5

Can I upgrade while my virtual machines are running?

Yes. Upgrading from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5 can be done on-the-fly (virtual machines do not need to be powered-off, suspended, or migrated).

Do I have to use the command-line to upgrade to VMFS-5?

The upgrade to from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5 can be done either via command-line or via vSphere Client.

Note: Ensure that all ESX hosts accessing the LUN are already on ESXi 5.x.

• To upgrade to VMFS-5 using the vSphere Client, Under Configuration > Storage, highlight the desired VMFS-3 datastore, and click on Upgrade to VMFS-5... 
• To upgrade to VMFS-5 using the ESXi host command-line, use the command:
  
  # vmkfstools -T /vmfs/volumes/<VMFS3datastore>

When you work with VMFS5 and VMFS6 datastores, consider the following:

  1-  Upgrade. After you upgrade your ESXi hosts to version 6.5, you can continue using any existing VMFS5 datastores. To take advantage of VMFS6 features, create a VMFS6 datastore and migrate virtual machines from the VMFS5 datastore to VMFS6 datastore. You cannot upgrade the VMFS5 datastore to VMFS6.

  2-  Datastore Extents. A spanned VMFS datastore must use only homogeneous storage devices, either 512n or 512e. The spanned datastore cannot extend over devices of different formats.

  3-  Block Size. The block size on a VMFS datastore defines the maximum file size and the amount of space a file occupies. VMFS5 and VMFS6 datastores support the block size of 1 MB.

   4- Storage vMotion. Storage vMotion supports migration across VMFS, vSAN, and Virtual Volumes datastores. vCenter Server performs compatibility checks to validate Storage vMotion across different types of datastores.

   5- Storage DRS. VMFS5 and VMFS6 can coexist in the same datastore cluster. However, all datastores in the cluster must use homogeneous storage devices, either 512n or 512e. Do not mix devices of different formats within the same datastore cluster.

Regards,

Randhir

[269083]

Oh, very clearly, i wil try to upgrade VMFS from 3 -> 5 at first and do some options after that. Thanks ranchuab for strong support.

[daphnissov]

I would recommend not upgrading VMFS-3 volumes but rather create new ones. The reason being that, if you do, the upgraded volumes will inherit the block sizes from VMFS-3 and not get the 1 MB standard block size which is optimal.

[269083]

Hi Daphnissov,

If i don't upgrade VMFS 3 ->5, i can't resolved warning on vcenter system.

If i keep VMFS 3, Does it have any impact with my virtualization system?

[daphnissov]

Don't upgrade VMFS-3, build a new datastore on VMFS-5 or 6, migrate your VMs to that datastore, then delete your VMFS-3 datastore. VMFS-3 is really, really old at this point and there's no sense in continuing to use it.

[269083]

It's too difficult for me. 2 volumes VMFS-3 was created on storage from 3-4 years ago, i don't have any storage to create VMFS-5 or 6. ...Do you have any way to resolved this problem?

[daphnissov]

You can upgrade VMFS-3 to 5 in that case in an online state, but you will not be able to go to VMFS-6.

[269083]

I know that, but must i migrate all VMs data on datastore to other datastore before i do this work?

[daphnissov]

No