ESXI cannot create datastore on new device

[ardjanb]

I'm trying to create a datastore on a newly created device in Starwind Virtual San. When I'm trying to create a datastore on it, i get this error:


I've tried it on a other host, but that came up with the same error.

When I'm trying to connect the target and Disk Management pops up to setup the partition mbr or gpt on a Windows server 2012 R2 i got this error:


Trying to create the device again multiple times it still not works.

[ardjanb]

Also when I''m trying to copy the datastore I want to the disk i want to use (larger than existing one) for the new datastore instead of creating a new one the copy part with Windows Explorer gave no errors.

Before the copying i stopped the Starwind Service and started after that the copying. After the copying I changed the drive letter to the one the 'old' drive was using. So far so good. Then i restarted the server en then took a look at the ESXI hosts. They didn't show the 'old' datastore. Even not after a restart of the host. When i look at Add Storage in ESXI it is showing the datastore but as a empty one.

Someone an idea what is happening here?

https://forums.starwindsoftware.com/vie ... f=5&t=2700 I used as 'guide' for the copying.

[Vladislav (Staff)]

Hello ardjanb,

First of all, please make sure that you have created a StarWind device with 512K allocation unit size as required for VMware.

Also I would recommend you to check with our Installation Guidance in order to be more familiar with basics of StarWind Virtual SAN : https://www.starwindsoftware.com/techni ... Sphere.pdf

[ardjanb]

I've created a 512K allocation unit size when creating the device.

[darklight]

Could you please ensure that you are not trying to use 4k native HDD's? As another option try to create an LSFS device (thin provisioned) to see if it behaves differently.

[ardjanb]

I created a LSFS device and I'm able to create a datastore without errors.

[Tarass (Staff)]

It seems you have 4k native block size HDDs and ESX can not properly handle such kind of storage.
More information here: https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... lock-size/