vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware

Procedure
1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the server from the inventory panel.
2 Click the Configuration tab and click Storage in the Hardware panel.
3 Click Add Storage.
4 Select the Disk/LUN storage type and click Next.
5 From the list of LUNs, select the LUN that has a datastore name displayed in the VMFS Label column and
click Next.
The name present in the VMFS Label column indicates that the LUN is a copy that contains a copy of an
existing VMFS datastore.
6 Under Mount Options, select Keep Existing Signature.
7 In the Ready to Complete page, review the datastore configuration information and click Finish.
What to do next
If you later want to resignature the mounted datastore, you must unmount it first.
Keep Existing Datastore Signature in the vSphere Web Client
If you do not need to resignature a VMFS datastore copy, you can mount it without changing its signature.
You can keep the signature if, for example, you maintain synchronized copies of virtual machines at a
secondary site as part of a disaster recovery plan. In the event of a disaster at the primary site, you mount the
datastore copy and power on the virtual machines at the secondary site.
Prerequisites
n Perform a storage rescan on your host to update the view of storage devices presented to the host.
n Unmount the original VMFS datastore that has the same UUID as the copy you plan to mount. You can
mount the VMFS datastore copy only if it does not collide with the original VMFS datastore.
n Browse to Datastores in the vSphere Web Client navigator. See “Display Datastore Information in the
vSphere Web Client,” on page 23.
Procedure
1 Click the Create a New Datastore icon.
2 Type the datastore name and if required, select the placement location for the datastore.
3 Select VMFS as the datastore type.
4 From the list of storage devices, select the device that has a specific value displayed in the Snapshot Volume
column.
The value present in the Snapshot Volume column indicates that the device is a copy that contains a copy
of an existing VMFS datastore.
5 Under Mount Options, select Keep Existing Signature.
6 Review the datastore configuration information and click Finish.
What to do next
If you later want to resignature the mounted datastore, you must unmount it first.
Chapter 17 Working with Datastores
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