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There is a very good blog post on the best practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions by Rich Brambley on the VM /ETC blog. The original article can be found here. In this article he had a very nice chart for custom partitioning.
Custom Partitioning
- The following Custom Partitioning Design is recommended:
| Mount Point | Type | Size | Purpose |
| / | ext3 | 5.0GB | The / (or “root”) partition stores the ESX system and all files not stored in another custom partition. If this partition is filled to capacity, the ESX host could crash. It is imperative to prevent this. |
| swap | 1600MB | The swap partition is used to supplement RAM if the service console runs out of physical memory. | |
| /home | ext3 | 512MB | The /home partition is created as a failsafe to help prevent / from filling up. Service console accounts (not vCenter) each have an associated /home folder. As a best practice, administrators should not use these folders for storage. If service console accounts are to be used and there are multiple users requiring access, the size of this partition may need to be increased. By default, /home is part of the / partition. By creating a custom partition for it the / partition will be protected if /home fills to capacity. |
| /tmp | ext3 | 2.0GB | The /tmp partition is also created as a failsafe to help prevent filling the / partition. /tmp is often used to untar support files, temporarily store copied logs and stage patches. By default, /tmp is part of the / partition. By creating a custom partition for it the / partition will be protected if /tmp fills to capacity. |
| /vmimages | ext3 | 512MB | Traditionally, /vmimages was used to store CD-ROM images (.ISOs) and Floppy Disk images (.flp, .img). However, most organizations following best-practices have moved this from each individual host to a single shared-storage location. However, by default ESX creates a /vmimages folder within / . This makes it dangerously easy for an Administrator to mistake it for the shared-storage repository and copy images into it that will fill / . As a failsafe to help prevent this, a small custom /vmimages partition can be created. If the local /vmimages folder is actually used, this size may need to be increased. |
| /var | ext3 | 2.0GB | The /var partition stores most system logs. Creating a custom /var partition provides substantial, dedicated log storage space (/var/log) while protecting the / partition from being filled by log files. Normally /var is part of the / partition. |
- The installer also automatically creates the following partitions without displaying them:
| /boot | ext3 | 260MB | /boot stores the files necessary to boot the service console. |
| vmkcore | 100MB | The vmkcore partition temporarily stores log and error information should the VMkernel crash. |
Besides being a good test question is there really any reason not to “just go big”? Most servers now ship with well over 50GBs of local storage. So why not create bigger partitions for the ESX Service console? I would use the local VMFS partition as a temp storage to put some ISO or clones of virtual machines. This would be just a place of temporary storage for me. This conversation becomes mute with ESXi and there are rumors that soon there will be just ESX(i) and the service console becomes a memory. I am not a big fan of losing the service console but not much else I can do except rant a little when I can. By the way, “/boot” has been increased as a “safety net” for future upgrades to ESX(i).
Rich recommended setup is as follow and for the most part I agree completely
Primary:
/ - 5120MB
Swap - 1600MB
Extended Partition:
/var - 4096MB
/home - 2048MB
/opt - 2048MB
/tmp - 2048MB
I might even say to add 1GB to each partition in his example, except for the Swap partition. So what about you? How big is yours?
Partitions, Service Console, vmware, vSphere
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 1st, 2009 11:05 am
[...] Virtual Black Hole » Blog Archive » vSphere Service Console Partitioning http://www.thevirtualblackhole.com/uncategorized/vsphere-service-console-partitioning – view page – cached There is a very good blog post on the best practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions by Rich Brambley on the VM /ETC blog. The original article can be found here. In this article he… Read moreThere is a very good blog post on the best practices for vSphere (ESX 4) Service Console Partitions by Rich Brambley on the VM /ETC blog. The original article can be found here. In this article he had a very nice chart for custom partitioning. View page [...]
December 1st, 2009 11:13 am
Thanks Steve!
Go “big” with local storage if you plan on using it, and you make good suggestions for doing that. Reality is that cost of drives of drives impacts the size chosen. Larger drives tend to be more cost effective today. I can’t remember the last time I saw a new server ordered with 2 18 GB drives (for a mirror) - which is really all that would be needed for ESX
December 1st, 2009 11:55 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by sbeaver: New Blog Post: vSphere Service Console Partitioning - http://bit.ly/4TkI9D\…
December 1st, 2009 12:56 pm
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/27/partitioning-your-esx-host-part-ii/
The mentioned sizes are incorrect. by default /boot will be roughly 1100MB and the vmkcore will be 125MB.
I would also not use vmimages anymore. It’s ancient history and there really is no need to store ISOs local.
December 1st, 2009 1:01 pm
I stand corrected. Thanks for the correction and the comment.
December 9th, 2009 3:51 am
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