ESX Partitioning

If you delete a required partition, be sure to create a new one of the same type. You cannot define the sizes of the /boot, vmkcore, and /vmfs partitions when you use the graphical or text installation modes. You can define these partition sizes when you do a scripted installation.

ESX Required Partitions

Mount Point	Type	Size	Location	Remarks
/boot	ext3	Bootdisk = 1.25 GB /boot partition 1100 MB vmkcore partition 110 MB	Physical partition	This is where grub is located.
	vmkcore	Bootdisk = 1.25 GB /boot partition 1100 MB vmkcore partition 110 MB	Physical partition not on a software iSCSI volume	Used to store core dumps for tech support
	VMFS3	esxconsole.vmdk: 1200 MB	Physical partition that is only accessible to the host	Used to store virtual machines
	swap	Minimum: 600 MB Maximum: 1600 MB	Virtual disk in VMFS volume	ESX SWAP space
/	ext3	Default: 5 GB	Virtual disk in VMFS volume	ESX OS and services (and addons/applications)

Note: As a general rule, swap files are created with a size equal to at least two times the memory allocated to the operating system. The installation process allocates a default amount of 300MB of memory for the Service Console; therefore, the default swap partition size would be 600MB.

ESX Optional Partitions

Mount Point	Type	Size	Location	Remarks
/home	ext3	512 MB	Virtual disk in VMFS volume
/tmp	ext3	1024 MB	Virtual disk in VMFS volume
/usr	ext3	No recommendation	Virtual disk in VMFS volume
/var/log	ext3	2000 MB	Virtual disk in VMFS volume	Used for logfiles, this partition is created by default.

Viewing Partitioning on ESX

[root@esx01 ~]# vdf -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdi5             4.9G  1.7G  2.9G  37% /
/dev/sdh1             1.1G   84M  943M   9% /boot
/dev/sdi2             2.0G   96M  1.8G   6% /var/log
/vmfs/devices         724G     0  724G   0% /vmfs/devices
/vmfs/volumes/4da455cd-c9a480c6-d194-00215e207214
                      255G  130G  125G  50% /vmfs/volumes/DS1
/vmfs/volumes/4da5fdf4-5e375629-e53f-00215e207216
                       10G  8.2G  2.6G  75% /vmfs/volumes/esx01_boot

Fdisk

[root@esx01 /]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdh: 12.8 GB, 12884901888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1566 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdh1   *           1         140     1124518+  83  Linux
/dev/sdh2             141         154      112455   fc  VMware VMKCORE
/dev/sdh3             155        1566    11341890    5  Extended
/dev/sdh5             155        1566    11341858+  fb  VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sdi: 8392 MB, 8392802304 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdi1               1         127     1020096   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdi2             128         382     2048287+  83  Linux
/dev/sdi3             383        1020     5124735    5  Extended
/dev/sdi5             383        1020     5124703+  83  Linux

Viewing Mount Information on ESX

[root@esx01 ~]# cat /etc/fstab
UUID=82c95979-f119-4573-a095-b64d6aab50ef /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
UUID=be6b3051-5973-435f-8221-190ba6c3aeda /boot                   ext3    defaults        1 2
None                    /dev/pts                devpts  defaults        0 0
/dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom              udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy             auto    noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
None                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
None                    /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
UUID=45247de9-d96e-40ec-8bc1-582f288610a9 /var/log                ext3    defaults,errors=panic 1 2
UUID=ee181904-3d32-4256-a86f-855bbffea2e2 swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

[root@esx01 ~]# cat /etc/mtab
/dev/sdi5 / ext3 rw 0 0
None /proc proc rw 0 0
None /sys sysfs rw 0 0
None /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
/dev/sdh1 /boot ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/sdi2 /var/log ext3 rw,errors=panic 0 0
none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
sunrpc /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw 0 0

[root@esx01 /]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdi5             4.9G  1.7G  2.9G  37% /
/dev/sdh1             1.1G   84M  943M   9% /boot
/dev/sdi2             2.0G   93M  1.8G   5% /var/log

Viewing ESX Service Console VMDK

[root@esx01 esxconsole-4da5fd5e-8296-cd3a-b104-00215e207214]# ll
total 8196288
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root        280 Apr 13 21:55 core-dumps
-rw------- 1 root root 8392802304 Aug 29 10:08 esxconsole-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root        498 Apr 13 21:48 esxconsole.vmdk
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root        980 Apr 13 21:56 logs

vmware, storage

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