6

We have a ~24TB Datastore (a single LUN mapped via a DAS) which has a VMFS5 Datastore.

My understanding was with ESX 5.5 and VMFS5 you can have file sizes up to 62TB (as per this article: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2058287) .

However, the properties of the datastore show the following:

enter image description here

Is there a configuration I am missing, is something wrong here?

PnP
  • 1,684
  • 8
  • 37
  • 65

2 Answers2

7

Resolved. When looking at the datastore through the vSphere Web Interface (my fault, I still prefer the old client) it correctly shows the 62TB max size limit. Potentially a hardcoded value in the old GUI given it's now deprecated.

PnP
  • 1,684
  • 8
  • 37
  • 65
  • Exactly. In the KB article that you referenced there is also the sentence "You must use the vSphere Web Client to create or extend a VMDK beyond 2 TB". – VFrontDe Jul 02 '15 at 19:20
  • 1
    Aye, but I didnt realise the GUI would actually report inaccurate information. – PnP Jul 02 '15 at 19:34
2

This looks like a former VMFS-3 volume. The block size impacts the maximum capacity of the datastore under the legacy VMFS-3 format.

enter image description here

But beyond that and with vSphere 5.5, you have to use the Web client to do anything with larger VMs and VMDKs.

Use the vSphere Web Client to create VMDKs larger than 4 TB, or to extend an existing VMDK beyond 4 TB.

ewwhite
  • 194,921
  • 91
  • 434
  • 799
  • I thought it might have been an upgraded VMFS 3 datastore as well, but it looks like 1MB is the non-configurable block size for VMFS 5. - http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003565 – joeqwerty Jul 02 '15 at 19:26