Tag Archives: storage

vSphere vmk ping reply update in 5.1

There is a new KB Article out from VMware discussing a change in how the kernel managed ICMP replies. If you’ll recall some ISCSI vendors needed workarounds for how replies worked in previous releases. The issue was the reply would … Continue reading

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Shooting yourself in the foot is bad (Where are my swap files?)

vSphere by default stores vswap files (the files used when your host runs out of physical memory to allocate) with the local machines. However, you can choose (on a per VM or per-host basis) to direct all swap files to … Continue reading

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Extensions of Raw

I’ve seen some docs and data out there that exhibit confusion over the file extension for an RDM file, describing it as .rdm.vmdk or -rdm.vmdk or other variations. A quick ls from a VM with a RDM shows: there is … Continue reading

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Thin Expansion (vSphere5)

Here’s a curious one. The max size of a thin-provisioned VMDK on a VMFS5 datastore is 2TB. If you create a new VMDK you’re allowed to create it at 2048GB/2TB.   However when you go to expand an existing VMDK … Continue reading

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NetApp head swap (FAS2020 / FAS3240) and upgrade (7.3.6 to 8.0.2)

Three years ago a client purchased a FAS2020, with 12 SAS disks in the head and a Fibre Channel shelf of ATA disks. After a year (or so) they added a second FC shelf The FAS2020 was a big success … Continue reading

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Drobo: all 25 reasons (so far) not to put one into production

Yesterday I posted “Reason 25 not to use a Drobo” and refereed to an earlier post listing another reason. Some folks have asked what the other 23 are. My running list so far, in no particular order: (note this is … Continue reading

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Reason number 25 not to use Drobo in a production environment

DroboElite’s have 4 options for “format type” NTFS (XP), NTFS (new than XP), Multi-Host and none. Why those are considered “format type” is beyond me, but suffice to say you need one of the NTFS versions to connect the volume … Continue reading

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VMDK alignment (Free p2v / v2v)

Disk alignment is a known problem in virtual environments. Older guest OS (primarily Windows before 2008 tho *nix has the same issue) would start their partitions slightly off the boundary which could cause an increased amount of IOPS. You can … Continue reading

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vSphere5: VSA overhead

VMware has announced/shipped a software-based clustered storage solution for vSphere5 called Virtual Storage Appliance. It is intended for the SMB space for those who do not want the cost/complexity of a hardware storage array. Couple of issues right off the … Continue reading

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Upgrade and Expand vSphere5 VMFS partition > 2TB

Quick steps to expand a 2TB VMFS3 datastore to >2TB with vSphere5 VMFS3 datastore, ~2TB on a 3.6TB LUN

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