Hi Everyone,
Current Setup:
Clariion SAN
ESX 3.5 Cluster
ESX 3.0.2 Update 1 Cluster
I have an existing LUN which currently has VM's installed and running on that LUN. Basically, I want another ESX server to get access to this LUN. I feel like a moron and it seems like this process should be straightforward.
I have added a new ESX Server (3.0.2) to the appropriate storage group so that it can gain shared access to the LUN with other ESX servers. On the new server, I went into the Storage Adapters and performed a "Rescan" which now shows the new LUN in the list of LUNs.
The next step is tripping me up, I feel like I should be going into Storage and clicking "Add Storage" however the "Warning: The current disk layout will be destroyed. All file systems and data will be lost permanently" message which is making me nervous.
How do I go about adding an existing VMFS LUN to a new ESX server? Also, just an additional piece of info, the LUN I am adding, was created with an ESX 3.5 server.
Thanks in advance,
Sean
You should go to the storage tab and just click refresh, you do not have to add the storage again
I saw that in another thread - so I did another rescan and refresh. It has already shown up in the Storage Adapters area... but a refresh of the Storage list does not make the new datastore available.
Thanks!
If you add storage, it will be asked to format the new partition.
Just click on the refresh link
Oh really ?
That's strange.
Did you try a classic service mgmt-vmware restart ?
Nope - I didn't try that yet. If I run that command, will it disrupt the VM's currently running on that particular host?
Another thought that crossed my mind... The host I am adding this LUN to is configured for HA with another ESX host. However, I did not add the LUN to the other ESX host. Should I be adding the LUN to that host as well for the datastore to appear? Now that I think it through... it kind of makes sense.
Thanks!
Sean
Yeah in fact that make sense, but I think the LUN should be shown in the LUN list when you refresh...
You can try that.
(no service mgmt-vmware restart just restart some services and re-read the esx.conf file, it just lose connectivity for few seconds with the ESX and its VMs)
Hi Sean_Kane,
Some brand of ESX servers needs sometimes a reboot after adding existing storage.
Can you try doing a reboot of the ESX host.
If still nothing is visible it can be that there is something wrong with the signature on the disk.
you can write a new siganture on the vmfs datastore with preserving the data on that datastore.
Goto Advanced Settings --> LVM --> LVM.EnableResignature --> change the value from 0 --> 1
rescan your storage (storage adapters section)
Goto Advanced Settings --> LVM --> LVM.EnableResignature --> change the value from 1 --> 0
changeback to the original datastore name
You need to be carefull but I have seen a similar problem before and changing the advanced setting LVM, lvmDisallowSnapshotLun and then rescan may fix the problem