homelab – Page 3 – Kev's Development Toolbox

April 8, 2019April 8, 2019

Adding a New Storage Datastore to ESXI 6.5 (on an HP DL380 G7), and fixing the “Failed to create VMFS datastore – Cannot change the host configuration” error

This is part 3 of 3 in a series on adding new drives and storage to my HP DL380 G7 server and ESXi. The previous 2 parts are here, part 1 – adding new drives, and part 2 – configuring a new RAID array.

After the previous two steps were complete, the new disks are in, the new RAID array configured, the next step is to add the storage in ESXi to be available to new VMs. Here’s my starting point, almost out of space:

Right now I have 1 Datastore configured in ESXi:

To add a new Datastore in ESXi:

At this point I ran into the error ‘Failed to create VMFS datastore’:

This post with steps to fix the partition table on the newly added drives. First step was to enable the sshd service to ssh into the server:

First, use this command to find the disk id of the newly added disk. Here I can see my new disk array as it’s the one closest to 1TB, the size of the new disks:

ls -lha /vmfs/devices/disks/

This command shows the issue with the partition table on the new disk array:

 partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/(disk ID)

Next, use this command to reset the partition table to msdos type for the new disk array:

partedUtil setptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/(disk ID) msdos

Repeating the previous steps to add the new datastore now works, new store added:

New storage space now looks good!

Checking in iLO on the newly added disks, looks good:

Also, taking a look at fan speeds after 30mins or so, fan speeds all look good!

Done!

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019

Adding a new logical RAID array to a HP DL380 G7 server

A while back I added my first disks to my $150 eBay HP DL380 G7 server – if you’re looking for steps on how to get to the RAID settings on the DL380 server, see my previous post here.

I recently started to run out of space on the 2 drives I’d installed previously, so time to add some more storage. I added a couple of cheap refurbished WD Blue drives described here, and I have a step by step post on physically installing the drives here.

Now the drives are installed, I need to add them to the RAID controller. After the POST tests, hit F8 to get to the iLO setup, and then exit, per the steps described in my earlier post here.

Press F8 when prompted to get to the RAID setup:

Select ‘Create a Logical Drive’ – here I’m adding a new RAID array with my 2 newly inserted drives:

I selected the 2 newly installed 1TB drives, in a RAID 1+0 config:

F8 to save:

Saved:

… and now I have 2 RAID arrays, the first one I added at a 750GB RAID 1+0 array, and now the new 1TB RAID 1+0 array:

In the next post I’ll show adding a new store in ESXi to use the new space on this new RAID array.

February 28, 2019February 28, 2019

Adding new drives to an HP DL380 G7 Homelab

I recently ran out of space on my Homelab ESXi running on my HP DL380 G7 server, so it’s time to add some more storage. First, I checked the list of supported drives known not to have the thermal runaway issue on the DL380 and similar models. I have a couple of WD Blacks right now, but the model numbers on those are hit and miss, some models work, some don’t, and I couldn’t find the exactly same model number on sale again (the working model I have is WD7500BPKX). I noticed though there’s a longer list of WD Blue drives that are known to work ok, and looking on Amazon I found some refurb 1TB drives for $40. Since this is just a hobby server and I don’t need to store anything critical on there, this sounded like a good deal.

I needed a couple of extra drive caddies too, here’s what I picked up:

2x KKmoon HHD Tray Bracket For HP G7 2.5″ Drive Caddy SAS SATA 371593-001 DL380 DL370 DL360 G5 G6 G7″
2x WD Blue 1TB Mobile Hard Disk Drive – 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 128MB Cache 2.5 Inch – WD10SPZX (Certified Refurbished)

The WD drives arrived same day from Amazon – they were in sealed bags but obviously not the original packaging as they were refurbs. They were also wrapped in plenty of bubblewrap which was plenty adequate to protect them during shipping, and shipped in a Jiffy bag:

The HP server drive caddies arrived the following Monday (ordered on Saturday). Again, packaged well, in a box and in a Jiffy bag:

Here’s the assembled drives ready to go:

And here’s the new drives going in:

Space before:

Space after – ready to go:

December 17, 2017December 17, 2017

HP iLO Integrated Remote Control Java Web Start App

I love that I can power on my HP DL380 server remotely using the iLO feature (it’s upstairs in my office). I hadn’t yet played with the ‘Integrated Remote Control’ yet though which is available from a link from the iLO home page. The Java Web Start version runs ok from Firefox which allows you to watch the start up process remotely and interact with the server startup menus.

After ESXi has completed booting, apparently you need an additional license to continue to use it past that point. At this point after ESXi there’s not much you can do with the server anyway so this is not a big deal (since interacting with ESXi is all via the web app).