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Suff0beast
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 7.0.3 installed on wrong datastore and now shows 0 bytes capacity

Hello,

Recently a technician was performing an installation of ESXi 7.0.3 and instead of picking its appropriate LUN, he installed it on a large 2TB LUN that was also presented to the installer. Turns out he installed it on one of our block storage Datastores. So now vSphere sees all 3 datastores, but the one that was selected for installation of the ESXi now shows 0 bytes Capacity. What I need to do is have this LUN/Datastore brought back to 2TB in size and fully available to vSphere for use (we are ok with the data being lost on it at this time).

When I perform an esxcli storage vmfs list

it now shows as:

OSDATA-<UUID> <UUID>  0 <Device Name> 7

whereas it should read:
VDI1-Nimble Datastore <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 1

 

How to fix this?

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

> What I need to do is have this LUN/Datastore brought back to 2TB in size and fully available to vSphere for use (we are ok with the data being lost on it at this time).

If you dont mind that the data on the original 2TB is lost - then just reinstall to the correct drive.
As that is the most obvious thing to do I rather think I missunderstood - please explain what your favorite solution for the OSdata volume is.
Keep in mind that the space requirements have significantly changed with the latest versions !

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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Suff0beast
Contributor
Contributor

I apologize; I 

I had him install to the correct LUN;

now the 2TB Datastore is in the state as described. So basically it is being treated as a boot device rather than a 2TB block storage exposed.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Can you please show the partitiontable of your disks.
I may be able to recover the 2TB volume but I still dont understand how your current layout looks like.

Ulli

 


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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Suff0beast
Contributor
Contributor

I suppose I am explaining this wrong;

 

You are well aware of a partition table when ESXi 7.0 is installed on a LUN; The technician has reinstalled the OS on the proper LUN that was designated for that host.

Now; the 2TB LUN "device" has 7 partitions (as you are well aware of because he installed the OS on that device incorrectly) and we need to remove all 7 partitions and then create a single partition as block VMSF6 for VM(s).

However, when I am attempting to use the partedUtil on one of the partitions it denies it as a "Read only filesystem" so I am unable to use the util to delete all of the partitions and then build just a Datastore.

We have 2 other Datastores that describe what it should be:

vCenter-Nimble <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 1

VDI2-Nimble Datastore <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 1

VDI3-Nimble Datastore <UUID> 0 <Device name> 1

OSDATA-<UUID> <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 7 <--- This is the incorrect OS LUN that is actually a 2TB Datatstore for VM(s)

OSDATA-<UUID> <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 7 <--- this is the correct OS LUN that has the OS running on it now.

This particular device should look like

VDI1-Nimble Datastore <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 1

 

! NOT:

OSDATA <UUID> 0 <Device Name> 7

 

Any advice?

Respecfully,

Rick

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Not sure, but maybe worth a try.

  1. Shut down the ESXi host, which had previously been installed on the 2TB LUN
  2. Login to one of the other hosts, select the 2TB LUN from the storage devices, and try to run "Clear partition table" from the available actions.
  3. If that works, you should be able to create a new datastore on that LUN.

André

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