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RDM with a size superior to 2 TB reported as invalid disk from the Windows 2003 Guest OS (2034200)

Symptoms

From ESXi 5.0, you can present RDM with a maximum size of 64 TB.
On a Windows 2003 VM, you present a RDM LUN; in physical mode, with more than 2 TB, successfully.
The guest operating system (OS) reports the disk as invalid.

Cause

The RDM is attached to a virtual machine with a SCSI controller based on SCSI-2; neither BUSLOGIC nor LSI SCSI.

There is a limit of 2 TB maximum size on SCSI-2 Controllers. This means that presenting a disk with a size superior to 2 TB is not supported.

Note: The LSI SAS controller do not have this limitation.

Resolution

To resolve this issue from the GUI interface:

Power off the virtual machine.
Remove the existing RDM Disk from the virtual machine.
Exit.
On the Recent task bar, you see the message Reconfigure virtual machine with a status of Completed.
Select a controller ID superior to the one in use to add the RDM disk.
Exit. On the Recent task bar, you see the message Reconfigure virtual machine with a status of Completed.

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As an example of SCSI IDs, you have a VM with one disk identified as :

SCSI (0:0) Hard disk 1

So if you want to had a second disk on a second SCSI controller, simply increase the ID of the controllers.

Then, if you want to had a disk ID 0 to a second SCSI controller , simply add the RDM disk as :

SCSI (1:0) Hard disk 1

So the second SCSI Controller will be automtomaticaly created.

By default the second SCSI controller is the type of the first on.

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Modify the type of second SCSI Controller:
Exit.
On the Recent task bar, you see the message Reconfigure virtual machine with a status of Completed.
Power on the virtual machine.

The RDM disk should be detected.

Note: If the RDM disk is not detected, it may be due to the absence of the LSI SAS driver. Use the guest OS recommendation to install the LSI driver for LSI SAS Card 1068.

For more information, see:

Impact/Risks

No potential impact has been identified.

Additional Information

For more information on the maximum supported configuration on vSphere 5.0, see Configuration Maximums VMware® vSphere 5.0.

Update History

None

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