RAW disk mapping - virtual Conversion / physics?

Similar Questions

• vCentre virtual conversion physical server

  We run vCentre 4.0 server who is physically installed on windows xp and want to virtualize in our vSphere ESX DR environment. The intention is to use the vCentre converter to generate the virtual machine on the server ESX and then use the existing physical vcentre to recognize the virtualized vCenter VM and set its IP address to what was the physical vCentre and then decommission the physical vCentre. During our attempted conversion vCentre VM, we have experienced a blue screen at 95% and conversion failed, note it was after stopping relevant services and the SQL db. This approach is possible, or does it install vCentre on a virtual machine manually and move the database?

  Thank you

  Hello

  I recommend installing a new Virtual Center, then restoring the DB and start working it would be best practice as well. If the converter is defective please check the logs of converter to see why and where it fails.

  Please take a look at the following KB

  http://KB.VMware.com/kb/5850444

  Kind regards

  Jana.

  NOTE: If your question or problem has been resolved / answered, please mark this thread as answered and awarded points accordingly.

• RDM (Raw Device mapping) physical or virtual?

  Hello:

  I have VM and will add a hard drive.  RDM will be, but I was wondering what "Compatibility Mode" choose "physical or virtual?

  It's my production Oracle machine and this new drive will contains about 500 GB of DATA...

  I think it would be nice to use the 'virtual' mode, to make snapshots, but I'm worrying that, for this one big disk, it will take a lot of time and a lot of space... There are other arguments that I should consider?

  Thank you very much.

  Best regards

  olegarr

  olegarr wrote:

  Surya,

  Thank you very much for your help.

  What is any other reason to use Virtual Mode, if I used instant no?

  Thank you

  olegarr

  "design of the SAN and Deployment Guide system.

  Virtual mode for a mapping specifies full virtualization of the mapped device. He

  appears to the operating system exactly the same as a virtual disk in a file

  VMFS volume. The actual physical features are hidden. Virtual mode

  customers who use raw disks of the benefits of VMFS, such as advanced files

  locking for snapshots to streamline development and data protection processes.

  Virtual mode is also more portable across storage than the physical hardware,

  with the same behavior as a virtual disk file.

  Physical mode for a device mapping gross specifies the SCSI virtualization minimum of la

  device mapped, allowing greater flexibility for SAN management software. In

  physical, VMkernel mode all SCSI commands to the device, with a

  exception: the REPORT LUNS command is virtualized, so that VMkernel can isolate the

  volume to the virtual machine owner. Otherwise, all the physical characteristics of the

  underlying hardware are exposed. Physical mode is useful for running the SAN management

  agents or other software SCSI target on the virtual machine. Mode of physics

  also virtual and physical memory allows for cost-effective high availability clustering.

• Convert a physical compatibility mode raw device mapping to a virtual compatibility mode raw device mapping

  Hello forum,.

  I have a virtual machine that got a RDM in physical Compatibility Mode, so I can't create snapshots of this disc.

  Is there a way to convert this ROW to a virtual Compatibility Mode to allow the creation of the snapshot?

  The client must create a snapshot tomorrow in order to update the database. In case of failure it would be easy to write the snapshot again.

  Hope you understand my problem.

  concerning

  Dennis

  Assuming that the RDM is attached to a single virtual computer, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006599

  Conversely, virtual and physical memory ROW, make sure you have deleted (Clerk) the snapshot before you remove the disk devices to the virtual machine, otherwise you will lose changed data!

  André

• The kernel cache exists for physical Raw Device Mapping?

  Hello

  I use a SAN storage disk attached to the operating system as "Physical Raw Device Mapping" and mounted at/mnt/disk1.

  I was lke take backup of/mnt/disk1 with "SAN Storage FlashCopy function", which copy entire disk in the SAN storage box, bypassing the operating system Linux and VMware kernel.

  Summary of the backup script is as follows.

  Step1: Synchronize "clear the cache of the Operatiog Linux system

  Step 2: umount/mnt/disk1

  Step 3: ExecFlashCopy ' run SAN Storage FlashCopy function

  Step 4: mount/dev/sde/mnt/disk1

  But if the VMware kernel cache for 'Physical Raw Device Mapping Device', "Empty the Cache of VMware" is necessary in step 2.5.

  You know VMware cache exists for P "effective Raw Device Mapping Device", and how do I rinse it out.

  Thank you.

  Your proposal is false. ESXi is not linux and does not cache for VMFS.

  ESXi does not cache the IO VM guest operating system receives IO acknowledgement when the disk controller to acknowledge completion of e/s.

  ESXi doesn't have any cache for RDM, what is physical or virtual.

  ---

  MCSA, MCTS Hyper-V, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

  http://blog.vadmin.ru

• Virtual Raw Device Mapping

  Can someone explain to me the difference between a regular virtual disk and a virtual raw device mapping? When I create the RDM I am just creating a file pointer to the correct virtual file? If yes why anyone would use virtual raw device instead of just mapping to create a typical virtual drive? I understand the benefits and limitations of the physical RDM I just do not understand the goal of the RDMS virtual.

  Well, even if a RDM in virtual mode allows you to use the tricks and VMware snapshots is not always the same thing as VMFS datastore.   As stated previously, you can easily remove this ROW and the provision of a physical server without losing a bit of data or to copy.

  If you have found this device or any other useful post please consider the use of buttons useful/correct to award points

• Move a virtual machine that has a raw lun mapped to SAN

  Dear all,

  I need expert advice for this case. I have a virtual machine on a host with esxi 4.0, but due to many machines same virtual host we are experiencing memory problems and have decided to move this virtual machine to another host with less VM and less use of resources.

  I plan 1 HR time to perform this task, this virtual machine have two drives one windows partition and the second 20 GB as mapped lun on SAN. So when you move it to another host, what I'll do is tap to stop the virtual machine, go to another host and storage switch to VM folder and add the VM.vmx file to add it to the inventory of the new host. What about the case of raw LUN mapped, how to take care of it.

  Please advise, it is little urgent.

  Thank you

  I guess there is no vCenter at stake here and you have no option for vMotion? The RDM, I would like to stop the virtual machine, detach the RDM LUN, migrating the virtual machine and re - attach the RDM.  As long as the two hosts can see SAN/RDM, you should be good with that.

• Documentation for the conversion of virtual and physical memory

  Are there any decent documentation for the conversion of virtual and physical memory?

  Any help would be appreciated.

  Yes I do, I'll send you my notes!

  Matthew

  Kaizen!

• How to migrate VM from\TO Raw Device Mapping (RDM) (data store)

  Hi all

  I have aske on the migration of VM from\TO Raw Device Mapping (RDM) (data store)?

  Thank you all for your support

  If you are using vSphere 5, then you can SvMotion the VM attached to a RDM (physical or virtual) with no problems. This means that only RDM mapping file will be moved to another data store without any conversion of changes on the real disc of RDM.

  Note: Do not attempt to change the format of disc thin or thick, which would cause the RDM disk converter for virtual disk.

  More info here: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/migrating-rdms-and-a-question-for-rdm-users.html

  If vSphere 4.x is used, hot and then migrate the virtual machine to another store of data will not change the format of the ROW, only mapping file will be moved. This is true for virtual and physical RDM.

  However, the cold migrate the virtual machine to another Datatore will change the ROW to virtual disk format.

  HTH... Let me know if you have any questions...

• Added raw lun mapped as a new hard drive, but VM does not see it.

  ESX 4.0 with two Windows Server 2008 virtual computer running.

  Created with SAN volumes and put at the disposal of the ESX host.

  I went in with my client vSphere virtual machine settings and added a new hard drive > mapped raw lun, stored with VM, physical and everything seems to set up correctly after hitting good. I also increased the size of the other two disks on this virtual machine. I rebooted the VM and connected to the server to find that he does not see the new drive, or he does not see the new size increases for other readers. I rebooted the host and yet, nothing new.

  What have I done wrong? Why these changes are not recognized by the virtual machine?

  After the increase in the size of disk or adding new disks, you must go the the VM Windows disk management and resize or format/partition/boot disks.

  André

• Grey raw device mapping

  We are implementing vsphere 5. our host machine is HP DL 380 G7 and storage storage IBM DS. We are implementing SAS SAN using HBA cables. There is no iSCSI or fiber module. We want to implement file on vphere server using win Server 2008 R2 SP1. We want to access our data directly from SAN LUN and not vmware data store. Whenever we try to add disks of virtual machines, raw device mapping is gray. If we check in the adapters of storage, we can see available LUNS. I don't add it to the data store. still, it is grayed out. Why? Please help us

  Welcome to the community,

  Please read http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017704 to find out if your storage system supports the RDM and whether it's save to disable the ROW filter. Article is not tagged for ESXi 5.0, but I guess this also applies.

  André

• VM cloning with raw device mapped drive

  Hey people... need help.

  I have a virtual machine that lives on a 500 GB Lun. The virtual machine has a C: drive of 60 GB (OS) and a 1.5 TB Raw Device Mapped LUN.

  My problem is I'm trying to clone this machine to have a backup of it. However when I try to clone a 500 GB or even 1 TB data store it says that I don't have enough space to do. I went and removed the RDM 1.5 TB LUN in cloning options so that it would only clone the C: drive. Still the same message.

  Also I noticed that the data of 500 GB store the VM currently living has a hard 1.5 to file which I assume is the Raw Device mapped LUN. Why this creates a file if it is mapped SAN. How she even to create a file of 1.5 TB on a 500 GB data store?

  Certainly, this seems to be the reason.  Instead of a clone, use vmware converter standalone and treat the VM as a physical server.  That should allow you to continue.  If nothing else, you can 'remove' the raw device of the VM, clone and then add the raw device to the original.  Converter should work well.

  vExpert

  VMware communities moderator

  vmwise.com / @vmwise

  -KjB

• Cannot add Raw Device Mapping as hard drive

  Hello

  We have 2 Server 2008 Virtual Machines (which are clustered) that make up a Cluster 2 node x.  The ESX servers that organize these VMs (ESX Server different on each) are connected to a San.  When I place these two VMs, I could add a hard drive "Raw Device Mapping" without problem - he could see data warehouses, I had Setup on the SAN.  However when I try to add a hard drive "Raw Device Mapping" on the 2 new virtual machines, the only options I have are:

  -Create a new virtual disk

  -Use an existing virtual disk

  Any ideas why Raw Device Mappings is greyed out?

  You add the second node RDM disk by selecting "use an existing virtual disk".  The ability to add RAW devices is only available for RAW LUN which has already been mapped to a virtual machine.

  When you add the ROW to the first node, a mapping for the RDM vmdk file was created. It's that developed from the second node.

  See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004617 for more details.

  André

• VM 2 not clustered for a raw device mapping

  Hi, I'm new in the world of VMWare. I watch discussions related to this issue, but the only one I met was on "more than a vm in the group for access to the raw device mapping drive". In this thread, we had to change the vmfs to a shared access mode.

  My question is:

  I want to have 2 vm with the same raw disk bound, but only one of them is going to power. This virtual machine (it is power on) will work with the raw disk (data base), while the other virtual machine is turned off. In the case of the first vm failed, I disabled this virtual machine and turn on the virtual machine second. This second vm start working with the database in the raw disk. How can I do this? Is necessary how to access shared for this problem?

  I hope you understand me with my poor English.

  Thank you very much.

  What you want to do is simple, you do not need to use shared mode. Probably the best way to achieve your goal is to build your first virtual machine and get it all set up and then remove (do not remove) the RDM and the clone to the virtual machine. This will result in two virtual machines with the same host name and the same SID (assuming Windows here) - two IDENTICAL systems. Power on each virtual machine in turn (only lit at the time) and add the ROW as an existing drive. As long as one virtual machine is running at the same time, there will be no problem.

  HTH,

  KLC

  Ken Cline

  Technical Director, virtualization

  Wells Landers

  TVAR Solutions, a company of the Wells Landers group

  VMware communities user moderator

• Query to convert RAW disk

  I'm working on a Compaq Presario C300.

  Windows XP pro.

  When I had, he had 2 SP installed, I managed to get 3 SP installed OK, but it does not accept windows updates... & is very slow, freezes from time to time... There is not a lot of data on it, I backed it up. At this point, I'm ready to wipe the machine & reinstall XP, when I try to do that, the hard drive is not seen, even though if I go into the BIOS & run check IDE drive he finished OK.

  When I restart a message flashes upward, the beginning of a screen blue scndisk, saying: could not complete the process as type if RAW disk... Despite the fact that there is an operating system on it, how can it be possible?

  When I look in computer management, disk management there are no drives listed, only the CD ROM

  There is a partition to restore the system on this machine, but when I boot it I either get a message flash on the screen for a second or 2 on the machine in virtual memory that it just restarts.

  Initially, I thought that the BIOS was the problem, but has managed to update the BIOS to version F24 OK.

  I have the original OS disks, but when I run I get the message saying that the installation can not find any hard disk installed on the computer.  Any help most welcome.

  hubert1000 wrote:
  

  Hello.

  I got the original installation CD & disc it worked.

  Thanks for your help.

  I am PLEASED to say you can con close this call!

  Wonderful.
  You must close by marking as resolved.