{"id":1514,"date":"2020-04-26T20:43:12","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.it-react.com\/?p=1514"},"modified":"2020-04-28T20:13:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T20:13:31","slug":"how-to-add-a-usb-disk-as-vmfs-datastore-in-esxi-6-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.it-react.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/26\/how-to-add-a-usb-disk-as-vmfs-datastore-in-esxi-6-7\/","title":{"rendered":"How to add a USB Disk as VMFS Datastore in ESXi 6.7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After some time using VMWare Workstation as a playground for my VM home lab environment, and after learning and testing with VM ESXi Hosts, I decided that is time to move to a hardware lab.

So I achieved, for the start, 2 servers for the ESXi hosts, and because there is no HDD on the servers, I have installed the ESXi software on an USB Stick. For the storage I would like to use a dedicated shared server, but I am still looking what server and drives should I get. I need more time to check and see what would be the best solution for me.

But in the same time, I am not having enough patience to wait till I build my storage server, I would like to start testing the ESXi hosts right away. I know that this is a compromise solution, but I thought to attach a USB Disk as VMFS Datastore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in today’s post I would like to show you how can we add and configure a USB Disk as VMFS Datastore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Please note that in the ESXi 6.7 version, USB devices larger than 2TB are not supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step one – Enable SSH access to ESXi host<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Connect to ESXi IP address, go to Actions and then select Services and Enable Secure Shell (SSH). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step two – Connect to ESXi host using SSH <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With your preferred SSH client, mine is Putty, start a connection to the ESXi host. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Step three – Stop USB Arbitrator<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You have to stop USB Arbitrator Service. The service is used to passthrough the USB devices from hosts to a virtual machine. Once stopped, you will not be able anymore to passthrough USB devices to VMs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

# \/etc\/init.d\/usbarbitrator stop<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To maintain the stopped status of the service after reboot, insert the command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# chkconfig usbarbitrator off<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Step four – Plug in the USB device to the ESXi host and get the device identifier<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Connect USB device to the ESXi host. Then get the device identifier by issuing the following command in Putty:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# ls \/dev\/disks\/<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
First USB device is the stick which is booting the ESXi software, so the second device is the USB Disk that we’d like to use for the datastore –  mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step five – Write a label to the device<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Write a gpt label to the USB device using its ID <\/p>\n\n\n\n
# partedUtil mklabel \/dev\/disks\/<deviceID> gpt<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Step six – Create partition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In order to create the partition, we need to have a few info:
1. The start sector: 2048<\/strong>
2. The GUID for VMFS: AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8<\/strong>
3. The end sector. This one should be calculated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To calculate the end sector, we’ll issue the following command first:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# partedUtil getptbl \/dev\/disks\/<deviceID><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Use this formula to get the end Sector:
243201 * 255 * 63 – 1 = 3907024064<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or you can use this formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# eval expr $(partedUtil getptbl \/dev\/disks\/<deviceID> | tail -1 | awk '{print $1 \" \\\\* \" $2 \" \\\\* \" $3}') - 1<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Now we have all the info and we can create the partition using the command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 # partedUtil setptbl \/dev\/disks\/<deviceID> gpt \"1 2048 <endSector> AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 0\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step seven – Format partition with VMFS6<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
We’ll format the partition now with VMFS6. Please be aware that we have “:1<\/strong>” after the deviceID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# vmkfstools -C vmfs6 -S USB-Storage \/dev\/disks\/<deviceID>:1<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step eight – Check Datastore in ESXi <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Return to ESXi and check the Storage tab. You should see here the new Datastore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
We have managed to add the USB-Disk as VMFS Datstore and we can now deploy VMs on it. I will proceed with the installation of vCenter Appliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.0<\/a><\/blockquote>