vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
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Set Up Dynamic Disk Mirroring<br />
Typically, you cannot use logical-volume manager software on virtual machines to mirror virtual disks.<br />
However, if your Microsoft Windows virtual machines support dynamic disks, you can protect the virtual<br />
machines from an unplanned storage device loss by mirroring virtual disks across two SAN LUNs.<br />
Prerequisites<br />
n Use a Windows virtual machine that supports dynamic disks.<br />
n Required privilege: Advanced<br />
Procedure<br />
1 Create a virtual machine with two virtual disks.<br />
Make sure to place the disks on different datastores.<br />
2 Log in to your virtual machine and configure the disks as dynamic mirrored disks.<br />
See Microsoft documentation.<br />
3 After the disks synchronise, power off the virtual machine.<br />
4 Change virtual machine settings to allow the use of dynamic disk mirroring.<br />
a Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.<br />
b Click the VM Options tab and expand the Advanced menu.<br />
c Click Edit Configuration next to Configuration Parameters.<br />
d Click Add Row and add the following parameters:<br />
Name Value<br />
scsi#.returnNoConnectDuringAPD True<br />
scsi#.returnBusyOnNoConnectStatus False<br />
e Click OK.<br />
Creating a Diagnostic Partition<br />
To run successfully, your host must have a diagnostic partition or a dump partition to store core dumps for<br />
debugging and technical support.<br />
Typically, a local diagnostic partition is created during <strong>ESXi</strong> installation. You can override this default behavior<br />
if, for example, you use shared storage devices instead of local storage. To prevent automatic disk formatting,<br />
detach the local storage devices from the host before you install <strong>ESXi</strong> and power on the host for the first time.<br />
You can later create a diagnostic partition on a local disk or on a private or shared SAN LUN using the client.<br />
The following considerations apply:<br />
n A diagnostic partition cannot be located on an iSCSI LUN accessed through the software iSCSI or<br />
dependent hardware iSCSI adapter. For more information about diagnostic partitions with iSCSI, see<br />
“General Boot from iSCSI SAN Recommendations,” on page 119.<br />
n Unless you are using diskless servers, set up a diagnostic partition on a local storage.<br />
Chapter 17 Working with Datastores<br />
n Each host must have a diagnostic partition of 110MB. If multiple hosts share a diagnostic partition on a<br />
SAN LUN, the partition should be large enough to accommodate core dumps of all hosts.<br />
<strong>VMware</strong>, Inc. 175