You have a situation where you have configure your ESX host as 3.5 with 2 disk as RAID 1+0 and rest all as RAID5 for the VMFS partition. If you have installed your ESX host like next and next finish then you will not see RAID 5 as VMFS partition though when you see your VC you can see that mounted as different target but when you try to add it as datastore you wont be able to do so.
I had college of mind who has installed the ESX like that and was struggling to create additional VMFS partition on RAID 5 partition. . When he tried to see if I can add using add store wizard but we were not able to see anything under storage wizard
How do we then create additional VMFS partition? We can not add it as extend as discussed in my previous blog. I then found beautiful KB and ask them to follow step by step (You never know if VMware make it paid so copying it on blog)
To create a new VMFS volume from the command line:
1. Locate the LUN you wish to format. For example, vmhba1:2:0.
2. Log in to the ESX console, either directly or through an SSH client.
3. Rescan the adapter to ensure that ESX is updated with the latest storage information. Run the command:
esxcfg-rescan vmhba<X>
where <X> is the adapter number
4. Locate the SCSI device from the console in order to find the device node for the LUN, and make note of the identifier.
o For versions of ESX earlier than 4.0, run the command:
esxcfg-vmhbadevs -m
Note: For ESX 3.x, the identifier is in the form of vmhba<C>:<T>:<L>:<P>.
o For ESX 4.0 and later, run the command:
esxcfg-scsidevs -c
Note: For ESX 4.0, the identifier is in the form of naa.<NAA
5. Enter either the Linux or VMkernel device name to open with fdisk.
6.
o For a Linux device, run the command:
fdisk /dev/sd<X>
where <X> is the device node letter
o For a VMkernel device, run the command:
fdisk /vmfs/disk/<device>
where <device> is the device reported in the output of step 4
7. Type p and then Enter to determine if any VMFS partitions already exist.
Note: VMFS partitions are identified by a partition system ID of fb.
8. Type n and then Enter to create a new partition.
9. Type p and then Enter to create a primary partition.
10. Type 1 and then Enter to create partition number 1.
Note: If partitions already exist but you want to use the free space, type 2, 3 or 4. You cannot have more than 4 primary partitions.
11. Select the defaults to use the complete disk.
12. Type t and then Enter to set the partition's system ID.
13. Type fb and then Enter to set the partition system ID to fb (VMware VMFS volume).
14. Skip to step 16 if the partition you created in step 9 is not the first partition.
15. Type x and then Enter to go into expert mode.
16. Type b and then Enter to adjust the starting block number.
17. Type 1 and then Enter to choose partition 1.
18. Type 128 and then Enter to set the offset to 128.
19. Type w and then Enter to write label and partition information to the disk.
20. Use vmkfstools to format the partition.
o For ESX 3.x, run the command:
# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b <Block_Size> -S <VMFS_Name> vmhba<C>:<T>:<L>:<P>
Note: Refer to the applicable identifier in step 4. The last number is the partition number, which must match the partition you created with fdisk.
For example:
# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 8m -S LocalVMFS /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba1:2:0:
This creates a new VMFS3 volume named LocalVMFS on the target vmhba1:2:0:1 with an 8 MB block size.
o For ESX 4.x, run the command:
# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b <Block_Size> -S <VMFS_Name> naa.<NAA>:<partition>
Note: Please refer to the applicable identifier in step 4. The last number is the partition number, which must match the partition you created with fdisk.
For example:
# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 8m -S LocalVMFS /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6090a038f0cd6e5165a344460000909b:1
This creates a new VMFS3 volume named LocalVMFS on the target naa.6090a038f0cd6e5165a344460000909b:1 with an 8 MB block size.
21. Rescan the HBAs on all of the ESX hosts to update them with the new information.
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