Best Practices For Vsphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions

Best Practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions | ...
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Announcing the 2009 Q2 VM /ETC UGG & UGH Winners Facebook Mini Blogs vSphere Host Profiles without Enterprise Plus Edition
Best Practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions

July 22nd, 2009 | Author: Rich Brambley
One of my popular posts on VM /ETC has been Best Practices for ESX Host Partitions. Now with vSphere, VMware has changed the recommended ESX 4 Service Console partitioning slightly. So, consider this post an update to the first one. As in the past, Ive taken this information from the VMware Partner services delivery IP available to partners on VMware Partner Central. Specifically I am taking information from the vSphere Essentials PoC delivery guide(s) found in the vSphere 4 Services Kit. Quoting myself from the first post, some things are still worth mentioning up front: Installing ESX is fast and simple. By default you could click through the installer GUI changing only your local time zone and end up with a stable, dependable host. However, there are some recommended partitioning best practices that should be followed in order to make sure you minimize possible future headaches and create a repeatable and scalable environment. When you install ESX 4 you should choose Advanced for the installation type so you can delete the default partitioning shown in the following screen shot:
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After deleting / changing the default s you can then create custom partitions as recommended. Custom Partitioning The following Custom Partitioning Design is recommended:
Mount Point Type Size Purpose
ext3
5.0GB
The / (or root) partition stores the ESX system and all files not stored in another custom partition. If this partition is filled to capacity, the ESX host could crash. It is imperative to prevent this.
swap
1600MB
The swap partition is used to supplement RAM if the service console runs out of physical memory.
/home
ext3
512MB
The /home partition is created as a failsafe to help prevent / from filling up. Service console accounts (not vCenter) each have an associated /home folder. As a best practice, administrators should not use these folders for storage. If service console accounts are to be used and there are multiple users requiring access, the size of this partition may need to be increased. By default, /home is part of the / partition. By creating a custom partition for it the / partition will be protected if /home fills to capacity.
/tmp
ext3
2.0GB
The /tmp partition is also created as a failsafe to help prevent filling the / partition. /tmp is often used to untar support files, temporarily store copied logs and stage patches. By default, /tmp is part of the / partition. By creating a custom partition for it the / partition will be protected if /tmp fills to capacity.
/vmimages
ext3
512MB
Traditionally, /vmimages was used to store CD-ROM images (.ISOs) and Floppy Disk images (.flp, .img). However, most organizations following best-practices have moved this from each individual host to a single shared-storage location. However, by default ESX creates a /vmimages folder within / . This makes it dangerously easy for an Administrator to mistake it for the sharedstorage repository and copy images into it that will fill / . As a failsafe to help prevent this, a small custom /vmimages partition can be created. If the local /vmimages folder is actually used, this size may need to be increased.
/var
ext3
2.0GB
The /var partition stores most system logs. Creating a custom /var partition provides substantial, dedicated log storage space (/var/log) while protecting the / partition from being filled by log files. Normally /var is part of the / partition.
The installer also automatically creates the following partitions without displaying them:
/boot ext3 260MB /boot stores the files necessary to boot the service console.
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vmkcore
100MB
The vmkcore partition temporarily stores log and error information should the VMkernel crash.
Note that it is no longer necessary to designate partitions as primary or extended. When you are done creating the new partitions per the table you should have a scheme like in the following screen shot.
VMware engineer Duncan Epping recommends the same basic partitioning on his blog at Yellowbricks.com. Epping also expands at bit more on some of the reasoning for customizing the partitions at http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/ The reason for this is the fact that the service console is a VMDK. This VMDK is stored on the local VMFS volume by default in the following location: esxconsole-/esxconsole.vmdk. By the way, /boot has been increased as a safety net for future upgrades to ESX(i). So for the manual installations there are three partitions less to worry about. I would advise to use the following sizes for the rest of the partitions, and I would also recommend to rename the local VMFS partition during installation. The default name is Storage1?, my recommendation would be -localstorage. Primary: / 5120MB Swap 1600MB Extended Partition: /var 4096MB /home 2048MB /opt 2048MB /tmp 2048MB With the disk sizes these days you should have more than enough space for a roughly 18GB for ESX in total.
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Awesome post, very well-written and helpful!! Thank you!! :) Tom
Great reference point, Rich. Thank you. Questions - do you foresee any changes in your recommendations based on ESXi or ESX Enterprise Plus installs?
rbrambley
1 year ago
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Kevin, Remember ESXi doesn't have the SC so you don't create any partitions there. Enterprise Plus edition doesn't change the SC setup, so no change there either.
Awesome, thanks for updating this. In RE: ESXi and not having an SC, how would you handle VMKCore? -Cody http://professionalvmware.com
Cody, Fact is that ESXi doesn't let you choose, modify, or even view the partitions unless you enter the unsupported tech support mode. See Jason Boche's post on this for more details http://www.boche.net/blog/?p=1...
The changes are a good idea. Honestly.. I wonder, why they don't make the partitions larger as to fit the recommendations by default (if the space is available). It seems nuts for the best recommended practice to be to switch to "advanced" mode and manually enter some things; the computed defaults _ought_ to be made the best possible defaults. Too many people simply click 'next' without changing partitioning, they expect the defaults to be perfect, or at least, for non-perfect defaults to be cleanly reconfigurable after installation. And by the time they've got someone who knows the ins and outs of ESX looking at their machine (because, perhaps disk space ran out on one of those ESX local mounts), the system's already deployed, and can't be re-partitioned easily. How badly are they shooting themselves in the foot? hm..
/vmimages While I understand your reasoning, creating small partitions "just because" is not good practice. A better solution is delete the directory and replace it with a link to the real location or if it is going to actually be used give it some real storage space or use it as a mount point. Few things are more frustrating than little stub partitions cluttering up your file system.
vinay12345678 11 months ago
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URGENT ...... hey anyone.. vmware vSphere kernel depends on RHEL and linux has a limitation as it can create only 16 partition as in scsi how about in esx server weather it will follow the same rule ?? how many maximum partition i can mount IN VSPHERE
What is the best partitioning for disk of 1.7TB? Thank you Haim
Haim, The partitioning shouldn't change. Just add the extra space to the VMFS volume so you can use it for VMs.
Isnt the /boot configuration 1100MB by default, not 260MB?
esx installation guide shows 1.25 gb of boot partition including vmkcore or 1100 MB without vmkcore, what is the actual size? for VCP exam :)
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From Twitter Como instalar vmware esx vsphere 4.0 http://icio.us/2kvo0c
From Twitter Working with vSphere Partitioning Best Practices: http://tinyurl.com/mv8geu @rbrambley < Nice Guide to start.
From Twitter Best Practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions. http://bit.ly/3zs5L
From Twitter Great blog on setting up service consoles with VMware ESX 4 at: http://bit.ly/QZHEm via @addthis
One more retweet from kevin_houston
From Twitter Best Practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions (VM /ETC) http://bit.ly/iAQS9
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need help i need to send a message how could i rewrite this paragraph so it is easier to understand? | Office Rental Space 07/24/2009 04:13 AM [...] Best Practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions | VM [...] VMWare: vSphere / ESX 4 Server Partitioning Colocation to Virtualization 08/06/2009 02:07 PM [...] Yellow-Bricks (Duncan Epping), as well as VMETC have a good articles as [...] Welcome to vSphere-land! ESX Links 08/18/2009 03:58 PM [...] Automating vSphere ESX4 host installations Cannot log in to an ESX 4 host with vSphere Web Access Best Practices ... vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partition Sizes | My-Technet 01/27/2010 11:40 AM [...] With the release of vSphere the recommended custom partition sizes have changed. Below is a table taken from vmetc.com ... Virtualization Adapted Archive 06/09/2010 06:28 PM [...] http://vmetc.com/2009/07/22/best-practices-for-vsphere-esx-4-service-console-partitions/ [...] VCAP-DCA Objective 9.1 : Install ESX Server with Custom Settings 09/22/2010 07:09 AM
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