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Topic Title: How to use RAW disk partitions
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Created On: 01/30/2007 10:05 PM

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01/30/2007 10:05 PM
gaspode New User Posts: 3 Joined: 01/30/2007	We are running VirtualIron 3.1.10 and I just planned to install a virtual machine with its disks on a raw storage (as we would prefer to keep things as ordinary as possible on the disks after a bad experience with VMWare and their VMFS-3 filesystem). It does however seem like the documentation is a bit lacking on how to create and use those in the Virtualization Manager. To quote the documentation: Management of Raw Disks Virtual Iron® allows raw disks to be assigned to VSs. While use of raw storage has certain advantages, they afford less management flexibility than the managed storage framework. You may want to use raw storage for either of these reasons: . Raw storage can be shared by multiple VSs. In contrast, vDisks must be assigned to VSs on a one-to-one basis . Slightly higher performance, realizable when using raw storage, may be required by certain classes of applications. See for information on determining the raw storage that is available to each managed node, and for instructions on assigning raw storage. For a discussion of raw storage, see REF. Okay, so how do I actually add raw disk partitions to the virtual machines, and where is this REF?
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01/30/2007 11:08 PM
cbarclay Fellow Posts: 216 Joined: 04/28/2006	Sorry for the gap in the documentation. To use raw storage, you need a fibre channel HBA on our HCL (a broad range of Qlogic and Emulex adapters). Zone a LUN to the HBA in the virtualized node, and it will appear as a storage option when you configure your virtual server. If you go to the section on setting up and configuring virtual servers, it is explained in further detail & with pictures.
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01/30/2007 11:11 PM
gaspode New User Posts: 3 Joined: 01/30/2007	Oh, so you can't just use a raw logical volume on a local (SCSI/IDE) disk then?
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01/30/2007 11:15 PM
cbarclay Fellow Posts: 216 Joined: 04/28/2006	Only SAN volumes can be accessed raw at this time. We announced a partnership with DataCore today that would allow you to create SAN volumes from local storage. Edited: 01/30/2007 at 11:16 PM by cbarclay
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01/30/2007 11:52 PM
gaspode New User Posts: 3 Joined: 01/30/2007	Ok, interesting. Would this change the way the data is stored on the physical medium? What we are looking for is to make sure that even if VirtualIron breaks down completly we will still be able to access the media using standard Linux tools. Is there some big thing against just giving the virtual machines direct access to the logical volume in the local VG's? The possibility to manipulate the drives with ordinary LVM-commands (to for example take a snapshot or resize the volume) would be very interesting.
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01/31/2007 08:08 AM
cbarclay Fellow Posts: 216 Joined: 04/28/2006	Raw is the same as physical ... you could boot a physical server off it. We don't give virtual servers access to logical volumes because that would reduce the value of abstraction. You could always mount that volume, but you need to be careful to make sure the volume is not in use.
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