Can't get pas 2Tb of disk space on my 4.5Tb RAID5 array

[CaptEHCJ]

Just purchased a dell 710 - installed with a RAID5 array with active capacity of 4.5Tb.  Installed ESXi 4.1 and it installed fine.  When I add a datastore, ESXi does see total capacity of 4.5Tb.  I create the first Datastore with 2000Gb of capacity and successfully get 2Tb of useable space for Datastore1.  BUT, when I go to add another datastore (Choosing the Disk/LUN option again, same as the first time), I have no options when I get to the "Select Disk/LUN" stage.  How can I access the remaining 2.5Tb of space.  I was planning to set up Datastores of 1.5Tb and 1Tb but dont see how to do so.  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

I attempted to attach a file that is a screenshot of the "properties" of the datastore, which also shows the total capacity of 4.5Tb.

Ernie Clark

ernie@MTechNIS.com

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the VMware Communities forums. As you've found ESXi has a 2 TB LUN limit. With many controllers you can carve up the disks into smaller LUNs (that still span all the disks).  In your case you would create 3 LUN all under 2 TB (the limit is 2 TB - 512B so create LUNs that are less than 2 TB).

Dave
VMware Communities User Moderator

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[AndreTheGiant]

With Dell controllers you can simple create more logical disk (enter in controller config ad look at Virtual Disk definition).

Actually there is not other way.

Andre

[CaptEHCJ]

Thanks and that is, of corse, the answer.  I did not realize that not only is there a 2Tb limit to Datastores, but also a 2Tb limit to LUNS (Virtual Disks per Dell) that ESXi can deal with.  I am making changes to the hardware config even now.  Thanks grealty for your help and quick reply.  It is much appreciated!

Ernie Clark

[kopper27]

so guys

if my customer needs let's say 2.6 TB for a email server and my Storage supports it ESXi is not capable of using that 2,6TB? not even using EXPANDs?

thanks a lot

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can use extents to create a datastore larger that 2 TB, but you're still limited to 2 TB virtual disks.

If you're going to be create large virtual disk you'll want to set the block size to 8 MB when you create a new datastore.  That'll allow virtual disk up to 2 TB.   The default datastore that ESXi creates has a block size of 1 MB so virtual disks are limited to 256 GB.  To change the block size you need to delete and recreate the datastore. 

[kopper27]

You can use extents to create a datastore larger that 2 TB, but you're still limited to 2 TB virtual disks.

ok great moe than 2 can be mounted but vmdk will be limited

[taylorb]

You could also use windows disk management to create spanned volumes, but that seems a little scary.   (Vmware extents scare me, too, though)

THis has to be something VMware is working on.  2TB is not really even very big here in 2011.  

[TheEsp]

Hi Guys

Just remeber guys the bigger you guys make your vmfs volumes = more load on the backup enviroment

Cheers

David