mikeleahy
asked on
vmware enterprise question
hi
i have a fairly easy question. i have 12 servers and a fibre san. all connections are ok etc. there is only 4 disks in the SAN at present, is it possible to add more disks to the SAN, create a new LUN and format with VMFS and start to virtualise the servers one by one while also still maintaining the existing LUNS so the servers can still work with them until they are virtualised.
i have a fairly easy question. i have 12 servers and a fibre san. all connections are ok etc. there is only 4 disks in the SAN at present, is it possible to add more disks to the SAN, create a new LUN and format with VMFS and start to virtualise the servers one by one while also still maintaining the existing LUNS so the servers can still work with them until they are virtualised.
ASKER
and it wont affect the original LUN and servers at all??
This will not affect the original LUN and the other servers will run happily. 4 disks serving 12 ESX hosts (or 12 VMs?) seems a bit low, but you are probably adding disks as you go now. :)
You need to use LUN masking on your SAN box. By using correctly configured LUN masking, the LUNs are only visible to the servers that need to use them.
This way, you avoid accidents e.g. an existing LUN being formatted by ESX.
You need to look at your SAN manual to see how you can implement LUN masking.
Some fiber switches also have nice built-in features that can assist with LUN management.. Cisco's 95xx line of SAN directors, for instance, allows the creation of VSANs (think VLAN, but with Fibre Channel traffic instead of IP).
ASKER
4 disks which is 1 TB for 12 VM's . only 2 ESX hosts, does this sound ok?
when you say "Then you will be prompted if you want to format it as a new vmfs volume.
" - what will prompt me to do this, the installation of vmware?
when you say "Then you will be prompted if you want to format it as a new vmfs volume.
" - what will prompt me to do this, the installation of vmware?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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After you have created a new LUN and zoned it to your group of ESX servers you will need to do a rescan on the HBA. Then you will be prompted if you want to format it as a new vmfs volume.
Lars