Create Datastore Operation Might Fail if the Disk Also Contains the ESX Server Service Console File System

Creating a datastore on a disk that contains the service console file system might fail with an error indicating an inability to update disk partitions. If the service console is using the disk for its root partition, it might prevent modifications to the partition table.

The easiest workaround is to use another disk for a datastore. If this is not possible, create the VMFS datastore manually. To do this:

1. Use fdisk on the /dev/sd[a-z]* device. Create a partition with type 0xfb.
2. Format the VMFS datastore using
   vmkfstools -C vmfs3 vmhbaI:T:L:P
   In this example, I corresponds to the initiator of the VMware host bus adapter, T corresponds to the target number of the disk, L is the LUN number, and P is the partition number of the newly created partition.