example for vmfs virtual Hardware version 4
# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=7341dd22
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="vmfs"
# Extent description
RW 16777216 VMFS "test-flat.vmdk"
# The Disk Data Base
#DDB
ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"
ddb.toolsVersion = "0"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "1044"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
example for vmfs virtual Hardware version 7
#
Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=7341dd22
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="vmfs"
#
Extent description
RW 16777216 VMFS "test-flat.vmdk"
#
The Disk Data Base
#DDB
ddb.virtualHWVersion
= "7"
ddb.toolsVersion = "0"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "1044"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
note : green parameters are optional and can be skipped
"vmfs"
native ESX and ESXi format
Required files:
"test.vmdk"
"test-flat.vmdk"
commandline tool for import and export on ESX : vmkfstools
format can be directly used by Workstation
dd-images or other disk-images can be used to replace the regular -flat.vmdk
Hey Christian,One thing to make not of thgouh. Even thgouh you can upgrade your VMFS3 datastores to VMFS5 it will retain the existing blocksize of the VMFS3 datastore. This becomes a problem if you want to do Storage vMotions across datastores with different block sizes as you'll see a performance hit. Also this really becomes a problem if you mix datastores with different block sizes inside of a Storage DRS Cluster. Just something to keep in mind. It might be a good idea once the upgrade of VMFS3 to VMFS5 is complete to create a new VMFS5 datastore and migrate all your VMs off of the upgraded VMFS datastore. Thanks for the great article!!
Added at: 2012-02-17 22:34