newly added disk is not visible inside /dev/

[srivicky4u]

Hi All,

        I am a newbee to ESX. Now we are developing a non PCI storage device (RAMDisk) driver for ESXi 5.0 .

1. Normally in Linux we can see the available disks and hardwares inside the /dev/ directory [Ex. /dev/hda, /dev/sda]

2. But in ESXi 5.0 we can not see any disks in /dev/ directory.

    Ex. As we are uisng SATA hard drive, we could not see /dev/sda 

3. After many resaerch we managed to add a disk in esx by using add_disk(gd) in our driver .But we could not see the added disk in the /dev/ directory. Is there any other way to view the newly added disk and mount the disk to the esx.

4. Inside /dev/disks also we could not see our newly added disks

As short,

How to check the available and newly added disk in ESXi 5.0 and how to mount it to the esx

What is the use of /dev/disks in esx

Thanks in advance .

Regards,

Vignesh

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Kindly corss check with the details/procedure mention in the link below. You need to rescan the storage and add to esxi.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1013500

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/vmware-add-datastore/

[srivicky4u]

Hi Umesh,

             Thanks for your reply ..As i told already we are porting a linux sample block device (sbull) driver to esx . And we succeeded  in it . Even though our module loaded , we could not see our newly added disks available in anywhere in esx . where can i see the newly added disks...?

             I refered the links and tried it ,

1. Refresh and Rescan

2. Add storage wizard ,

3.Select Disk/LUN (Storage Type)

4.click Next

5.After that i can see a empty LUN or disks list

I attached the image with this ...

Please let me know ,

1.As i told we are using SATA hard drive . So can i see /dev/sda in ESX . If not means where can i see it and which name can i see it..?

2.After adding a disk by our driver where can i see it ..?

Regrads,

Vignesh

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Go through the below link might solve your problem,

http://www.livingonthecloud.net/2009/09/adding-sata-disk-to-esxi.html

And if possible can you share the error if you are getting under any logs 

[srivicky4u]

Hi Umesh,

Thanks for your kind response

        I tried your last postings, actually that was the problem in our block disk driver code for esx, we fixed and managed to see the storage adapter in the vSphere client and also the disk in /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

      So we tried to create the datastore for our newly created disk by using the "Add storage wizard" .In that wizard, at step Select LUN/Disk we could not see our disk, it is blank

        I have attached the screen shots for creating the datastore

1. We want to do some file copy operations in the newly created block disk. Is that possible by without creating the datastore?

2. If not what is the problem in creating the datastore

Please help us ...Thanks in advance ....

Regards,

Vignesh

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

It seems to be RAID is not properly confirgured.

Take the help from the below link for configuring the RAID , If you are having Dell servers or Search for other site in case of another Vendor Hardware.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/PERC5/en/UG/HTML/chapterh.htm#wp1069357

This link has three sub steps,  skip the step on "Designate hot spares".
    a. Create the virtual disks and select the virtual disk options.   => steps to create another disk group and add the new disk to this disk group.
    b. Designate hot spares (optional). =>  YOU CAN SKIP THIS STEP
    c. Initialize the virtual disks. => must do.  just don't initialize the wrong disk.