USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in v. Sphere ESXi 6. 0. In the last years Ive seen many requests in forums and blogs where people are trying to use USB devices like USB sticks or external hard disks as VMFS formatted datastore. It was actually possible in v. Sphere 5, but very picky. Some USB flash drives were working, others not. In v. Sphere 6, this behavior has been changed obviously. This post explains how you can use USB devices as datastore on your ESXi host. Of course, this is neither a supported, nor a performant storage solution, so use at your own risk. Update If you are looking for USB VMFS Datastores in v. Sphere 6. 5, read this article. Create VMFS Datastore on USB drives. Connect to the ESXi host with SSHStop the USB arbitrator service. This service is used to passthrough USB device from an ESXESXi host to a virtual machine. When disabling it, you can no longer passthrough USB devices to VMs. Use this command to permanently disable the USB arbitrator service after reboot. Plug in the USB Device to your ESXi host. Get the device identifier mpx. XX. You should see the USB Device in devdisks. Write a GPT label to the device Assuming that the Device ID is mpx. Util mklabel devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 gpt. To create a partition you need to know the start sector, end sector, which depends on the device size and the GUID. The start sector is always 2. The GUID for VMFS is AA3. E0. 2A4. 00. F1. 1DB9. C2. 91. 1D1. B8. The end sector can be calculated with the following formula Use the numbers from getptbl parted. Util getptbl devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0. 1. 94. You can also calculate the endsector with the following command eval expr parted. Util getptbl devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 tail 1 awk print 1 2 3 1. Create the VMFS partition Replace with your endsector. Util setptbl devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 gpt 1 2. AA3. 1E0. 2A4. 00. F1. 1DB9. 59. 00. C2. 91. 1D1. B8 0Format the partition with VMFS5. C vmfs. 5 S USB Stick devdisksmpx. Whats in the Release Notes. The release notes cover the following topics Whats New Earlier Releases of vCenter Server 6. 0 Patches Contained in this Release.
Installed Xeon E31230V2 in a Gen8 HP Microserver. All four cores enabled, so far it works fine. C0 T0 L0 1. The USB Stick should now appear in your datastores view. And the final proof is a virtual machine running on it This is how your command output should look like parted. Util mklabel devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 gpt. Util getptbl devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 tail 1 awk print 1 2 3 1. Util setptbl devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 gpt 1 2. AA3. 1E0. 2A4. 00. F1. 1DB9. 59. 00. C2. 91. 1D1. B8 0. AA3. 1E0. 2A4. 00. F1. 1DB9. 59. 00. C2. 91. 1D1. B8 0. C vmfs. 5 S USB Stick devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 1. create fs device. Name devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 1, fs. Short. Name vmfs. Name USB Stick. Full. Path devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 1 device. File mpx. vmhba. C0 T0 L0 1. ATS on device devdisksmpx. Earlier this month I wrote an article demonstrating a functional USB ethernet adapter for ESXi 5. 1. This was made possible by using a custom built driver for ESXi.
C0 T0 L0 1 not supported. Checking if remote hosts are using this device as a valid file system. This may take a few seconds. Creating vmfs. 5 file system on mpx. C0 T0 L0 1 with block. Size 1. 04. 85. 76 and volume label USB Stick. Successfully created new volume 5. Performance. You cant expect much performance out of usb flash drives. To see whats possible Ive connected a Samsung m. SATA SSD 8. 40 EVO 2. GB to my Intel NUCs NUC5i. MYHE USB3 port and created a VMFS datastore on it. Unfortunatelly its detected as USB 2 device. There is a USB 3. That seems to be a common problem, I dont know if its actually possible at the moment. Update October 1. Figured out why devices are detected as USB 2. Devices now with full USB 3. Performance test results updated. Max Write Throughput 3. MBs. Max Read Throughput 3. MBs. Max Write IOPS 8. CMDSs. Max Write IOPS 8. CMDSs. Throughput Test IOPS Test Mixed IO Test IO Analyzer Exchange 2. Is it possible with ESXi 5. USB Devices in ESXi 5. Some devices work, others not. I couldnt figure out why, but it is definitely related to ESXi 5. Ive use the same procedure on the same hardware with the same flash drives. ESXi 6. 0 takes all devices without any Issues, ESXi 5. In ESXi 5. 5 the output for non working devices looks like this devdisks parted. Util mklabel mpx. C0 T0 L0 gpt. Util getptbl mpx. C0 T0 L0 tail 1 awk print 1 2 3 1. Util setptbl mpx. C0 T0 L0 gpt 1 2. AA3. 1E0. 2A4. 00. F1. 1DB9. 59. 00. C2. 91. 1D1. B8 0. AA3. 1E0. 2A4. 00. F1. 1DB9. 59. 00. C2. 91. 1D1. B8 0. C vmfs. 5 S terra mpx. C0 T0 L0 1. create fs device. Name mpx. vmhba. C0 T0 L0 1, fs. Short. Name vmfs. Name terra. device. Full. Path devdisksmpx. C0 T0 L0 1 device. File mpx. vmhba. C0 T0 L0 1. Checking if remote hosts are using this device as a valid file system. This may take a few seconds. Creating vmfs. 5 file system on mpx. C0 T0 L0 1 with block. Size 1. 04. 85. 76 and volume label terra. Usage vmkfstools C vmfs. C vmfs. 3vmfs. 5 vmfsdevicesdisksnaa. C vmfs. 3vmfs. 5 vmfsdevicesdisksmpx. A T L P. Error vmkfstools failed vmkernel is not loaded or call not implemented. To workaround that, Ive tried to create the datastore with ESXi 6, and plugged it into an ESXi 5. No success. The datastore is recognized but appears as inactiveunmounted. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 3 3. 33. 15WARNING Lin. Scsi. LLD scsiaddhost 5. Adapter usb storage sg. Max. Entries rounded to 2. Reported size was 6. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 3 3. 33. 15DMA 6. DMA Engine vmhba. DMANull. 2. 01. 5 1. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 3 3. 33. 15lt 6 usb storage 1 1. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 3 3. 33. 15lt 6 usb 1 1. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 3 3. 33. 15lt 6 usb 1 1. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 2 3. 28. 09Scsi. Npiv 1. 50. 4 Get. Info for adapter vmhba. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 8. Z cpu. 2 3. 28. 09Scsi. Npiv 1. 50. 4 Get. Info for adapter vmhba. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 0 3. 70. 02usb storage detected SCSI revision number 0 on vmhba. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 0 3. 70. 02usb storage patching inquiry data to change SCSI revision number from 0 to 2 on vmhba. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 2 3. 70. 03Scsi. Scan 9. 76 Path vmhba. C0 T0 L0 Vendor Model Patriot Memory Rev PMAP. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 2 3. 70. 03Scsi. Scan 9. 79 Path vmhba. C0 T0 L0 Type 0x. ANSI rev 2, TPGS 0 none. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 2 3. 70. 03Scsi. Uid 2. 73 Path vmhba. C0 T0 L0 does not support VPD Device Id page. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 2 3. 70. 03Scsi. Scan 1. 10. 5 Path vmhba. C0 T0 L0 No standard UID Failure. ANSI version SCSI 2 0x. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 1 3. 70. 03VMWARE SCSI Id Could not get disk id for vmhba. C0 T0 L0. 2. 01. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 1 3. 70. 03Scsi. Scan 1. 50. 3 Add path vmhba. C0 T0 L0. 2. 01. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 1 3. 70. 03Scsi. Path 4. 69. 5 Plugin NMP claimed path vmhba. C0 T0 L0. 2. 01. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 0 3. 70. 02usb storage detected SCSI revision number 0 on vmhba. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 0 3. 70. 02usb storage patching inquiry data to change SCSI revision number from 0 to 2 on vmhba. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Scsi. Uid 2. 73 Path vmhba. C0 T0 L0 does not support VPD Device Id page. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03VMWARE SCSI Id Could not get disk id for vmhba. C0 T0 L0. 2. 01. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03vmwpspfixed pspfixed. Select. Path. To. Activate. Int 4. Changing active path from NONE to vmhba. C0 T0 L0 for device Unregistered Device. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Storage. Apd. Handler 6. 98 APD Handle Created with lockStorage. Apd. 0x. 41. 08. 97. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Scsi. Events 5. 01 Event Subsystem Device Events, CreatedT1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03VMWARE SCSI Id Could not get disk id for vmhba. C0 T0 L0. 2. 01. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Scsi. Device. IO 7. 41. Get VPD 8. 0 Inquiry for device mpx. C0 T0 L0 from Plugin NMP failed. Not supported. 2. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Scsi. Device. IO 7. 42. Get VPD 8. 3 Inquiry for device mpx. C0 T0 L0 from Plugin NMP failed. Not supported. 2. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Scsi. Device. IO 7. 45. Get VPD 8. 6 Inquiry for device mpx. C0 T0 L0 from Plugin NMP failed. Not supported. 2. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 3 3. 70. 03Scsi. Device. IO 6. 17. Could not detect setting of QErr for device mpx. C0 T0 L0. Error Failure. T1. 9 4. 4 0. 9. Z cpu. 2 3. 27. 87NMP nmpThrottle. Log. For. Device 2. Cmd 0x. 1a 0x. 41. C0 T0 L0 on path vmhba. C0 T0 L0 Failed H 0x. D 0x. 2 P 0x. 0 Valid sense data 0x. Act NONE. 2. 01.