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  • 1.  Unable to create VMFS partition on external USB hard drive

    Posted Feb 09, 2018 06:24 PM

    Hello there!

    I want to create a datastore on an external 500GB USB hard drive with the following guide: USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.0 | Virten.net

    It all worked fine until step nine where I have to create the vmfs partition. Instead of vmfs5 I used vmfs6 (but due to the error i tried 5 as well - didn't worked), but when I run the command I get the following message with an error:

    [root@localhost:~] vmkfstools -C vmfs6 -S VOTMGTEXDS003 /dev/disks/t10.WDC_WD500

    0BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000

    create fs deviceName:'/dev/disks/t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000', fsShortName:'vmfs6', fsName:'VOTMGTEXDS003'

    deviceFullPath:/dev/disks/t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000 deviceFile:t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000

    ATS on device /dev/disks/t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000: not supported

    .

    Checking if remote hosts are using this device as a valid file system. This may take a few seconds...

    Creating vmfs6 file system on "t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000" with blockSize 1048576, unmapGranularity 1048576, unmapPriority default and volume label "VOTMGTEXDS003".

    Failed to create VMFS on device t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000

    /dev/disks/t10.WDC_WD5000BPKT2D60PK4T0__00000000A78200000000: Permission denied.  (Have you set the partition type to 0xfb?)

    Error: Permission denied

    I was googling for a solution but I didn't found anything that worked for me.

    Some (maybe useful) information:

    When I log in onto the ESXi web client, I'm seeing the device with a VMFS partition with the device's size but I cannot create a datastore from it.

    Greetings,

    Sandro



  • 2.  RE: Unable to create VMFS partition on external USB hard drive
    Best Answer

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Feb 26, 2018 10:23 AM

    As you didn't mention the partition details in the command, it is throwing the permissions denied error. For more information, see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-2062B38D-C1F0-4620-BC29-EDD566B0D4D1.html