ESXi

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  • 1.  Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:05 PM

    Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive



  • 2.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:19 PM

    It's up to you, both options work well.

    André



  • 3.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:28 PM

    I have a Couple of Questions

    CAn i install it on a 1 GB Drive and configure Scratch Somewhere on the Datastore or Do i need atleast 5.2 GB Of Space ?????



  • 4.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:31 PM

    Storage requirements

    ESXi 5.1 has these storage requirements:

    • Installing ESXi 5.1 requires a boot device that is a minimum of 1GB in size. When booting from a local disk or SAN/iSCSI LUN, a 5.2GB disk is required to allow for the creation of the VMFS volume and a 4GB scratch partition on the boot device. If a smaller disk or LUN is used, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on a separate local disk. If a local disk cannot be found, the scratch partition (/scratch) is located on the ESXi host ramdisk, linked to /tmp/scratch. You can reconfigure /scratch to use a separate disk or LUN. For best performance and memory optimization, VMware recommeds that you do not leave /scratch on the ESXi host ramdisk.


    • To reconfigure /scratch, see Set the Scratch Partition from the vSphere Client in the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation.


    • Due to the I/O sensitivity of USB and SD devices, the installer does not create a scratch partition on these devices. As such, there is no tangible benefit to using large USB/SD devices as ESXi uses only the first 1GB. When installing on USB or SD devices, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on an available local disk or datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found, /scratch is placed on the ramdisk. You should reconfigure /scratch to use a persistent datastore following the installation.


    • In Auto Deploy installations, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on an available local disk or datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found /scratch is placed on ramdisk. You should reconfigure /scratch to use a persistent datastore following the installation.


    • For environments that boot from a SAN or use Auto Deploy, it is not necessary to allocate a separate LUN for each ESXi host. You can co-locate the scratch regions for many ESXi hosts onto a single LUN. The number of hosts assigned to any single LUN should be weighed against the LUN size and the I/O behavior of the virtual machines.


  • 5.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:35 PM

    Thanks for the Information.. I am just looking for 5.0 Right Now



  • 6.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:41 PM

    It's all in the documentation :smileyhappy:

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc_50/GUID-DEB8086A-306B-4239-BF76-E354679202FC.html

    Storage Requirements for ESXi 5.0 Installation

    Installing ESXi 5.0 requires a boot device that is a minimum of 1GB in size. When booting from a local disk or SAN/iSCSI LUN, a 5.2GB disk is required to allow for the creation of the VMFS volume and a 4GB scratch partition on the boot device. If a smaller disk or LUN is used, the installer will attempt to allocate a scratch region on a separate local disk. If a local disk cannot be found the scratch partition, /scratch, will be located on the ESXi host ramdisk, linked to /tmp/scratch. You can reconfigure /scratch to use a separate disk or LUN. For best performance and memory optimization, VMware recommends that you do not leave /scratch on the ESXi host ramdisk.

    To reconfigure /scratch, see the topic "Set the Scratch Partition from the vSphere Client" in the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation.

    Due to the I/O sensitivity of USB and SD devices the installer does not create a scratch partition on these devices. As such, there is no tangible benefit to using large USB/SD devices as ESXi uses only the first 1GB. When installing on USB or SD devices, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on an available local disk or datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found, /scratch is placed on the ramdisk. You should reconfigure /scratch to use a persistent datastore following the installation.

    In Auto Deploy installations, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on an available local disk or datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found /scratch is placed on ramdisk. You should reconfigure /scratch to use a persistent datastore following the installation.

    For environments that boot from a SAN or use Auto Deploy, it is not necessary to allocate a separate LUN for each ESXi host. You can co-locate the scratch regions for many ESXi hosts onto a single LUN. The number of hosts assigned to any single LUN should be weighed against the LUN size and the I/O behavior of the virtual machines.



  • 7.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:53 PM
    CAn i install it on a 1 GB Drive and configure Scratch Somewhere on the Datastore ...

    Yes, only the first ~900 MB of the flash/USB drive will be used for the mandatory partitions. Scratch and VMFS have to be on persistent storage.

    see http://rickardnobel.se/esxi-5-0-partitions/

    André



  • 8.  RE: Installing esxi on a Flash or Disc Drive

    Posted Mar 27, 2013 07:29 PM

    And what about 2.0 and 3.0 I am sure it works with 2.0 and not sure of 3.0 ......