Cannot Create DataStore In vSphere 4.1

[keegster]

Hi all,

I cannot create a datastore in my vSphere 4.1 client.

When I start to create the datastore, I get this error, notice how it also says that the harddisk is blank - it is also mis-reporting the size of the disk as 250GB - should be 3.4TB

I can get past this by pressing back, then next but after I enter a DataStore name, this error comes up:

I have no idea why this is, I have also tried it on several other client machines, all display the same errors - I have attached two error logs in the hope that someone will be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks

K

[JohnADCO]

2TB limit on 4.1

[keegster]

Hi JohnADCO,

I did not know that but it shouldn't matter.

I have previously created DataStores in this manner before without seeing this error, the client has not given me the opportunity to specify how large the DataStore is yet either...

K

[JohnADCO]

Put the size as 1.9TB,    I'll bank it works.

[keegster]

Thanks for your reply,

I have not been given the option to enter any capacity information yet so I don't have that option....

K

[JohnADCO]

At the lun level......

You can't give 4.1 anything bigger than 2TB subtracting like 512bytes are something like that.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

As mentioned, LUNs presented to the ESXi host need to be <= 2TB minus 512 bytes in order to work as expected. For the reason of this limitation see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/3371739

Alternatively you may consider to upgrade to ESXi 5.0, which supports LUNs with up to 64TB.

André

[scrookston]

Just to add on to what already has been said, when you present a lun that is greater then 2 TB, the free space shown is going to be the last amount of available space less all of the 2 TB 'chunks' of data. For example if you have a 7.2 TB lun you presented it will be 1.2TB that is shown. If you want to go above a 2 TB datastore you will have to use a physical mode RDM. Remember though that you will still be limited to 2 TB per VMDK.

I wrote a little more about it here:

http://www.seancrookston.com/2011/09/19/what-happens-with-vmfs-luns-greater-then-2-tb/

[AnthonyChow]

scrookston wrote:

I wrote a little more about it here:

http://www.seancrookston.com/2011/09/19/what-happens-with-vmfs-luns-greater-then-2-tb/

thanks for the write up.