Seems this is becoming part of a series. Like the last few posts, this one was also produced from objective 1.1 of the VCDX Blueprint, and is part of my exam prep.

Task:

Manage VMFS file systems using command line tools.

Solution:

[root@ProfessionalVMware root]# vmkfstools
No valid command specified

OPTIONS FOR FILE SYSTEMS:

vmkfstools -C –createfs vmfs3
               -b –blocksize #[mMkK]
               -S –setfsname fsName
           -Z –extendfs extension-partition
   deviceName

           -P –queryfs -h –humanreadable
           -T –tovmfs3
               -x –upgradetype [zeroedthick|eagerzeroedthick|thin]
           -u –upgradefinish
   vmfsPath

In this case I’ve only included the relevant output.

Creating a VMFS file system:

[root@ProfessionalVMware root]# vmkfstools –create vmfs3 –b 8M –s NewVolume vmhba1:2:0:3

Getting some details on a VMFS file system:

[root@ProfessionalVMware root]# vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/storage1/
VMFS-3.31 file system spanning 1 partitions.
File system label (if any): storage1
Mode: public
Capacity 34628173824 (33024 file blocks * 1048576), 34158411776 (32576 blocks) avail
UUID: 4b6ac385-66ac6b08-056e-000c29a47f2f
Partitions spanned (on "lvm"):
    vmhba0:0:0:3

While the content may seem obvious to some, this post is here to help those that still have their exams to prep for, or find themselves wandering about aimlessly on the CLI trying to configure NFS. Thanks for tuning in.

If you are looking for a detailed explanation of the features and enhancements to the storage stacks in ESX 4 as well as the differences between storage in ESX 3.5 and 4.0, the following presentation has what you are looking for:

vSphere Storage: Features and Enhancements

This presentation was written and delivered by Nathan Small, a staff engineer working in VMware support, at the Mid-Missouri VMUG in August 2009.

Time for a new series! Are you as excited and motivated as I am? In this series we’ll cover the Tops and Bottoms of VMware disk types. What are they, how do you make them, what are the benefits and drawbacks, and when would you use them. A lot to cover? Sure IS, but that is why it’s a series. I’ll try to get these out once a week as time permits. Seems simple enough right? It is really. There are five basic food groups when it comes to VMware ESX 3.5.x and disk types:

• Zeroed Thick
• Eager Zeroed Thick
• Thick
• Thin
• Raw

Thats it really. We’ll get into the specifics of each one of these in their own post in the series. The other 6 parts of this series will explain each of these in detail.