vsphere max volume size

Isnt it now 3.5TB on esxi 4? :S

No....2TB - 512MB (see link to Config Max Guide I posted).

~coolsport00

What makes you think it's 3.5 ?

Remember an old post on vmware forums saying max config size could be increased...tried to look for the post, but unable to find.

You can increase by 'extents'; but the 'standard' max size is what's stated above.

~coolsport00

How do extents work.
I guess I still need to configure all my space as Volumes, say 8 of and then do I 'extend' one to another some how?
Jo

See pg. 82 in the ESX Config Guide:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_esx_server_config.pdf
or
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/03/26/resizing-your-vmfs-the-right-way-exploring-the-next-version-of-esxvcenter/

Regards,
~coolsport00

Yes, although it is possible to create very large datastores, it is not recommended to do so.

1. I would certainly never recommend using extents, they complicate matters greatly if things go wrong.
2. Even 2TB is quite large for most purposes. Best practices state that it is better to limit the number of VMs in a single datastore, as already said by bgoering.

Gents, this is all good stuff and thankyou. I thought I would play around a little, see what happens. My San configurator wants volume sizes in MB so I have tried 3 so far.

Vol in MB           Capacity in Storage adaptors in Sphere       Vsphere-add storage available  
2097152             1.91 TB                                                        1.91 TB
3000000             2.73 TB                                                         745.96 GB
2195970             2.00 TB                                                         2.00 TB

So I am happy with the last size of 2TB but do you chaps think this is OK, does it look like it encompasses the -512mb mentioned earlier.

TIA
J

It will have to be 1.95TB.

~coolsport00

I have created another disk
2195458

this is 512 mb less that the one that reported 2.00TB

this also reports 2.00TB, do you think this would be alright or do you think I really have to play with the MByte numbers till it reports 1.95TB?

It has to be less than 2TB, so you will have to play around with it until you get it there.

Regards,
~coolsport00

The 2TB - 512KB is the max for a single .vmdk file. 2TB is the max for a LUN. However, as coolsport00 mentioned, if you want LUNs that large (again I tend to use 500GB) I would make it slightly less. Maybe 1.99 TB for safety.

VMware is a bit unpredictable when presented with a LUN larger than 2TB

@jrb139: how big will your average VM be ?

OK, I'll try and get them in at 1.99TB

I have a few VM's that are about 700gb. I use Veeam for backups, this keeps (say) 7 rollbacks. That makes 700 GB + 7 days changes. If I want to boot one of those rollbacks I need a partition that houses All the above and another instance of the entire server and some working space for veeam to do its thing. That takes me right up there to 2 TB.

If I had the choice I'd put everything in one big partition but from the conversations above this doesn't seem like such a good idea.

As so often is the case with these GUI's the maths appears to get reported wrong.

I have to define how many MB I want the partition to be and I want 2TB.
1024 * 1024 *2 = 2097152  ( I reckon)
Subtract  1 to accomodate the 512K mentioned above.

Vsphere reports this as being 1.91 TB, well hey, I am going with partitions of this size unless someone out there can point out the failings in my Maths.

That should do it "jrb.." :)

Regards,
~coolsport00

Gents

Your help, time and efforts on this much appreciated.

Volumes are now set and now ready for use.

Jo