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Running ontap 8.1.2 Sim on ESXi 5.1 - fix

MichaelCade
2,935 Views

hi all i thought i would share i what i have found out. here is a blog post of what i found etc. and the fix to allow the new 8.1.2 work on ESXi 5.1

http://www.vzilla.co.uk/vzilla-blog.html

3 REPLIES 3

shatfield
2,935 Views

The problem is that the 2gb sparse disk format is no longer supported on ESXi 5.1 and beyond.

Theres the easy fix, and the hard fix.

Easy fix:  before first boot, delete and recreate the SIM disk VMDK on IDE 1:1.  Use this method if you are building a new sim from scratch. 

Hard fix: re-enable 2gb sparse disk support, and convert the disk to a supported type with vmkfstools.  Use this method if you have an existing sim you are trying to get working after upgrading your esxi install.

For example:

  1. enable ssh and esxishell
  2. use ssh or DCUI to access esxi shell
  3. cd /vmfs/{datastore name}/{vsim folder}
  4. vmkload_mod multiextent
  5. vmkfstools -E DataONTAP-sim.vmdk DataONTAP-sim-2gbsparse.vmdk
  6. vmkfstools -i DataONTAP-sim-2gbsparse.vmdk -d thin DataONTAP-sim.vmdk
  7. vmkfstools -U DataONTAP-sim-2gbsparse.vmdk
  8. vmkload_mod -u multiextent


rbrinson
2,935 Views

Can you give details of the original issue you experienced?  I went to you BLOG site but did not see any specifics.  Thanks.

shatfield
2,935 Views

Essentially, the sims are packaged using a virtual disk format thats no longer support on esxi out of the box. 

The blog post vanished a while ago, but its been discussed here before, for example:

https://communities.netapp.com/message/106708#106708

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