VMWARE VSPHERE 7.

0:
INSTALL, CONFIGURE, MANAGE

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

Document Version: 2020-11-04

Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc.

www.netdevgroup.com

NETLAB+ is a registered trademark of Network Development Group, Inc.

VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
Objectives............................................................................................................................ 3
Lab Topology....................................................................................................................... 4
Lab Settings ......................................................................................................................... 5
1 Remove a VMFS Datastore ......................................................................................... 6
2 Rename a VMFS Datastore ....................................................................................... 10
3 Create VMFS Datastores for the ESXi Host ............................................................... 12
4 Expand a VMFS Datastore to Consume Unused Space on a LUN............................. 18
5 Extend a VMFS Datastore ......................................................................................... 21

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 2

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

Introduction

In this lab, you will create and manage VMFS datastores.

Objectives

 Remove a VMFS datastore

 Rename a VMFS datastore
 Create VMFS datastores for the ESXi host
 Expand a VMFS datastore to consume unused space on a LUN
 Extend a VMFS datastore

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 3

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

Lab Topology

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 4

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

Lab Settings

The information in the table below will be needed in order to complete the lab. The
task sections below provide details on the use of this information.

Virtual Machine IP Address Account Password

sa-esxi-01 eth0: 172.20.10.51 root Train1ng$

sa-esxi-02 eth0: 172.20.10.52 root Train1ng$

sa-aio eth0: 172.20.10.10 sysadmin vmware123

sa-student eth0: 172.20.10.80 sysadmin vmware123

sa-vcsa eth0: 172.20.10.94 [email protected] vmware123

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 5

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

1 Remove a VMFS Datastore

In this task, you will delete a datastore to destroy it and remove it from all hosts. Any
type of VMFS datastore can be deleted, including copies that you mount without re-
signaturing.

1. Launch the sa-student virtual machine to access the graphical login screen.

To launch the console window for a virtual machine, you may access by
either clicking on the machine’s graphic image from the topology page
or by clicking on the machine’s respective tab from the navigation bar.

2. Log in as sysadmin using the password vmware123.

3. Launch the Mozilla Firefox web browser by either clicking on the icon shortcut
found on the bottom toolbar or by navigating to Start Menu > Internet > Firefox
Web Browser.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 6

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

4. Notice the homepage is automatically configured to load the URL address of the
VMware vCenter Server Appliance (sa-vcsa virtual machine). Click on the LAUNCH
VSPHERE CLIENT (HTML5) button to launch the vSphere Client.

If you cannot successfully load the VMware Getting Started webpage,

then please wait an additional 3-5 minutes and refresh the page to
continue. During this time, the vCenter Server Appliance is still
booting up and requires extra time to initialize.

5. In the Username text field, type [email protected] and in the Password text
field, type vmware123. Click on LOGIN.

You may ignore the “browser-OS combination” warning message

presented on the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On page and continue
moving forward with the lab.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 7

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

6. While in vSphere Client, click on the Storage tab.

7. Expand the Datacenter object, right-click the iSCSI-LUN0 datastore, and select
Delete Datastore.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 8

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

8. When the Confirm Delete Datastore message appears, click Yes to continue.

9. Monitor the Recent Tasks pane. When the Remove datastore task completes, notice
the iSCSI-LUN0 datastore was successfully removed under the Datacenter object.
Leave the vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 9

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

2 Rename a VMFS Datastore

In this task, you will rename your VMware vSphere VMFS datastores.

1. In the navigator pane, ensure that the Storage tab is selected.

2. Right-click on datastore 1 and select Rename.

3. Enter Local01-1 and click OK.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 10

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

4. In the navigator pane, right-click datastore 2 and select Rename.

5. Enter Local02-1 and click OK.

6. In the navigator pane, verify that the new datastore names appear in the storage
inventory.
7. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 11

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

3 Create VMFS Datastores for the ESXi Host

In this task, you will set up VMFS datastores on iSCSI-based storage devices to be used
as repositories by virtual machines.

1. In the navigator pane, ensure that the Storage tab is selected.

2. In the navigator pane, right-click Datacenter and select Storage > New Datastore.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 12

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

3. In the New Datastore window, on the Type step, choose VMFS and click Next.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 13

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

4. On the Name and device selection step, type VMFS-2 in the Datastore name text box.
From the Select a host to view its accessible disks/LUNs dropdown menu, select sa-
esxi-01.vclass.local. In the LUN list, select IET iSCSI, LUN 0 with 23.50 GB of Capacity.
Click Next.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 14

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

5. On the VMFS version step, choose VMFS 6 and click Next.

6. On the Partition configuration step, enter 10GB as the Datastore Size and click Next.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 15

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

7. On the Ready to complete step, review the information and click Finish.

8. While on the Storage tab, verify that the new VMFS-2 datastore is listed in the
datastore inventory. Select the VMFS-2 datastore from the inventory.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 16

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

9. Ensure that the Summary tab is selected in the main workspace of VMFS-2 and
review the storage capacity information.

10. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 17

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

4 Expand a VMFS Datastore to Consume Unused Space on a LUN

In this task, you will dynamically increase the capacity of a VMFS datastore when more
space is required by a virtual machine.

1. In the navigator pane, ensure that the Storage tab is selected.

2. Right-click on the VMFS-2 datastore and select Increase Datastore Capacity.

3. In the new window, on the Select Device step, select LUN 0 and click Next.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 18

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

4. On the Specify Configuration step, adjust the Increase Size by slider to 10GB. Click
Next.

5. On the Ready to complete step, review the information and click Finish.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 19

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

6. Once the task is completed, select the VMFS-2 datastore from the navigator pane
and click on the Summary tab in the main workspace. Verify that the datastore size
is increased by 10 GB, minus the space required for system overhead.

7. Leave the vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 20

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

5 Extend a VMFS Datastore

In this task, you will extend the capacity of a VMFS datastore when extra storage space
is needed. This task uses a second LUN to extend the size of a datastore, based on the
first LUN.

1. In the navigator pane, ensure that the Storage tab is selected.

2. In the navigator pane, select VMFS-2. In the main workspace, click the Configure
tab.

3. Ensure that General is selected from the center pane and click Increase beside the
Capacity heading.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 21

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

4. In the Increase Datastore Capacity window, on the Select Device step, select LUN 1
and click Next.

5. On the Specify Configuration step, select Use all available partitions from the
Partition Configuration dropdown menu and click Next.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 22

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

6. On the Ready to Complete step, review the information and click Finish.

7. When the task completes, refresh the vSphere Web Client, and select Device Backing
in the center pane. Verify that two extents appear in the Extent Name pane. It
should show both of your assigned LUN IDs.

8. Click the Summary tab of the VMFS-2 main workspace. Notice the new value for
Total Capacity in the Summary tab.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 23

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

9. Click on the Hosts tab in the main workspace.

10. Notice that two hosts are connected, indicating that this datastore is shared
between the two ESXi hosts.

11. Right-click on VMFS-2 from the navigator pane and select Rename.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 24

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores

12. Enter Shared-VMFS as the name and click OK.

13. Verify that the newly renamed Shared-VMFS Datastore appears.

14. The lab is now complete; you may end the reservation.

11/6/2020 Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc. www.netdevgroup.com Page 25