Simulate ONTAP for ESX (vsim_esx-cm.tgz) has 1 multiextent vmdk preventing boot on ESX 5.1 and >

jgallagh — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 04:55:48 GMT

See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2036572

This describes the error message and workaround of loading the multiextent kernel module in order to power on Simulate ONTAP on ESX 5.1 and greater. This is because ONTAP 5.1 and greater do not load the multiextent kernel module. The command to load the multiextent kernel module does not persist across reboots. The long term fix is to consolidate the sparse multiextent vmdks in a copy process through vmkfstools per the referenced KB article.

The question is, could we package the VMDKs as separate small VMDKs versus multiextent to avoid this error?

The one multiextent VMDK is revealed below:

jasons-mbp:ESX jgallagher$ ls

vsim_esx-cm vsim_esx-cm.tgz

jasons-mbp:ESX jgallagher$ cd vsim_esx-cm

jasons-mbp:vsim_esx-cm jgallagher$ grep DataONTAP-sim.vmdk *vmx

ide1:1.fileName = "DataONTAP-sim.vmdk"

jasons-mbp:vsim_esx-cm jgallagher$ head -30 DataONTAP-sim.vmdk

# Disk DescriptorFile

version=1

CID=8c1ec616

parentCID=ffffffff

createType="twoGbMaxExtentSparse"

# Extent description

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s001.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s002.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s003.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s004.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s005.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s006.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s007.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s008.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s009.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s010.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s011.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s012.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s013.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s014.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s015.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s016.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s017.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s018.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s019.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s020.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s021.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s022.vmdk"

RW 4192256 SPARSE "DataONTAP-s023.vmdk"

Re: Simulate ONTAP for ESX (vsim_esx-cm.tgz) has 1 multiextent vmdk preventing boot on ESX 5.1 and &

shatfield — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 08:37:50 GMT

this ones been around a long time.

Is there a mechanism to file BURTS against the SIM? I could make a list 😃

topic Simulate ONTAP for ESX (vsim_esx-cm.tgz) has 1 multiextent vmdk preventing boot on ESX 5.1 and > in Simulator Discussions

Simulate ONTAP for ESX (vsim_esx-cm.tgz) has 1 multiextent vmdk preventing boot on ESX 5.1 and >

Re: Simulate ONTAP for ESX (vsim_esx-cm.tgz) has 1 multiextent vmdk preventing boot on ESX 5.1 and &