Today I discovered that there is an issue with VCB(mounter) and .vmx/.vmdk placement.
For some reason, our P2V tool had placed all config files (.vmx, log files, etc.) on /vmfs/volumes/datastore 1/<Servername> and our .vmdk files on /vmfs/volumes/datastore 2/<Servername>. In a normal environment, config files and vmdk files are kept together.
As you can see in the screenshot, the initial snapshot gets created but no operations can be performed and a timeout occurs after 45 minutes.
vcbMounter created a snapshot, and placed the snapshot files by default in the /vmfs/volumes/datastore 1/<Servername> folder where our .vmx resides. For some reason, VCB(mounter) is not able to “find” our original .vmdk files.
You have 2 options in this scenario:
- If you don’t want to have your .vmx and your .vmdk files togheter: change the Virtual Machine Working Location from the location where the .vmx file resides to the datastore location where the .vmdk files reside and (re)add to the VirtualCenter inventory.
This can be done by editing the .vmx file and adding the following parameter:
workingDir = "/vmfs/volumes/454b27d2-f2172987-4798-0017085ce0dd/<ServerName>/"
Note the UID notation, and not the linked name - If you want your .vmx and .vmdk files together: migrate your VM using a “cold" migration and relocate your .vmx (configuration files) to the datastore where your .vmdk files reside (see also my previous article here). This is the easiest & fastest approach.
5 opmerkingen:
I, too, just discovered this issue, and find it particularly annoying since "Experts" at VMWare had previously advised putting separate .vmdk (virtual disk) files on separate datastores...I guess this does not work very well if one wants to use VCB.
Yes, I agree. I would never separate my vmdks on different datastores. I prefer to build smaller datastores (256/512 GB) with less VMs (= less contention), but keep everything together. If different RAID sets are necessary, I prefer using RDMs as data disks, and system partitions as vmdks on VMFS. Just my 2 cents!
But for VCB with RDM is only chance to use virtual compatibility mode.
Hi,
Has anyone found a solution to this 'feature' yet, we implemented VCB then moved to a different disk layout with seperate vmfs LUNs for OS, Data and Pagefile... now the VCB doesn't work...?
Also can we make the seperate pagefile volumes persistent so the VCB doesn't back them up?? don't need a backup of the pagefile!
Thanks, Craig.
thanks ur information
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