We have 9 physical server nodes/hosts and we're preparing to setup a VMware vCenter test lab (for learning/practicing with using vCenter Server) for performance evaluation, prior to making a decision on whether to use vSphere for our client's hardware production use.
We've read through vSphere Installation and Setup manual, but we are facing several problems.
We have eight diskless nodes (that are each booting ESXi 5.5 off of a 8GB USB stick)
We have one main server node (that is booting ESXi 5.5 off a 16GB USB stick)
- The main server node has four 4TB hard drives installed in it (all are blank/empty/unformatted)
This is what we've done so far:
1) Installed ESXi 5.5 on all 9 nodes (on each USB stick)
This is what we still need to do:
1) Create four 4TB VMFS datastores (or create a 16TB vSAN using four 4TB datastores?)
2) Install vCenter Server Appliance VM (with vCenter Single Sign-On, vSphere Web Client, vSphere Inventory Service and vCenter Server) on the newly created datastore.
The problem we are having now, is we are trying to create a 4TB VMFS datastore on each of the four 4TB hard drives, or possibly setup a vSAN using the four 4TB drives (into one large 16TB cluster?).
We want to install vCenter Server Appliance on the 4TB VMFS datastore (or vSAN), and use the vCenter Server Appliance to manage/configure each of the 9 ESXi 5.5 server nodes.
After reading the instructions, we seem to be extremely confused, because the instructions seem to create a "chicken and the egg" problem. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? The instructions say to install the vCenter Server Appliance on a datastore. We can't create a 4TB datastore using the C# vSphere client, so how do we create a 4TB VMFS datastore?
The instructions are very unclear, and we can't figure out how (step-by-step) to create a single 4TB VMFS datastore (using the vSphere Client), and how do we install a vCenter Server Appliance onto a 4TB VMFS datastore without having a vCenter Server Appliance (with Web Client) installed to create the 4TB VMFS datastore?
I really wish that the VMware vCenter Client (C# based client) was updated to support vSphere 5.5, and would allow you to create 4TB VMFS datastores, and allow you to install the vCenter Appliance onto a 4TB VMFS datastore from the C# vSphere Client.
Any ideas as to how we can format our first 4TB VMFS datastore using the vSphere Client? We do not have any datastores currently created, and although we have four 4TB hard drives inside the machine, we are not sure how to even create a 4TB VMFS datastore on the 4TB drives, since the VMware vSphere Client doesn't seem to support vSphere 5.5 features (including 4TB datastores), and there is no way to install the Web Client without having the vCenter Server Appliance (with Web Client) running? Correct?
How do we get a 4TB VMFS datastore created if the vSphere Client doesn't support creating 4TB VMFS datastores? Can you install a vSphere Web Client locally, on a local machine? Is that the only way to get a 4TB VMFS datastore created?
Thank-you for all your help,