Scripted installation or reinstallation with esxconsole VMFS aligned and 8M-block sized - How to perform?

[LevT2]

Hi guys.

Please help. Can't figure out how to solve this chicken-and-egg problem in ESX4.

Yeah, I can "cheat" with an externally created and labeled VMFS partition of even full system disk layout.

Please suggest ks.cfg commands to set the ESX4 up on top of it.

[mike_laspina]

Hi,

The 8MB is not an issue, just define the maxsize parameter which should force the larger allocation unit.

e.g

part storage1 --fstype=vmfs3 --size=8192 -maxsize=2047000 --grow --onfirstdisk

Alignment is a function that would have to be initiated with fdisk if your storage system does not default to a 64. For the local and boot from SAN methods this would be have to be done before the automated ESX run and then simply do not clear the partitions but build on the existing ones.

Regards,

Mike

vExpert 2009

[LevT2]

The question is quite cleared here

http://blog.laspina.ca/ubiquitous/automating-vsphere-esx4-host-installations#comments

(in the comments below)

but still not answered

Please help

[LevT2]

Found weasel installer intestines

/usr/lib/vmware/weasel/fsset.py

in installer's initrd.img

there is function formatDevice, it calls /usr/sbin/vmkfstools with parameter documented here (p.147): http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk25pubs/visdk25programmingguide.pdf

blockSizeMb—The block size of VMFS in megabytes (MB). Determines the maximum file size. If this

optional property is not set, the maximum file size defaults to the maximum file size for the platform. In

VMFS2, the valid block sizes in units of megabytes are: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256. In VMFS3, the only

valid block size is 1MB.[/b]

It looks like right: if I manually intervene in GUI install process end set this constant to 8, nothing happens and VMFS still being created with 1М block size

[forbes]

Hi Mike,

This didn't work for me unfortunately. I managed to find a workaround though:

Forbes Guthrie