esxi raw disk pass through

As a follow up to this post, I have migrated to ESXi.

Here's how to pass through drives as raw in ESXi:

(from the SSH tech support console)

# fdisk -l

Have a look at all the drives on the system, then check how they map to "vml" descriptors:

# ls /dev/disks/ -l

Hopefully you can see something like this:

vml.01000000002020202020202020202020203956533030524859535433313530 -> t10.ATA_____ST31500341AS________________________________________9VS00RHY

Now create a spot for the mappings... such as: /vmfs/volumes/system/rdms/

# cd /vmfs/volumes/system/
# mkdir rdms
# cd rdms

Then create the mapping:

# vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/vml.010000000020202020202020202020202039565330344d4254535433313530 rdm02.vmdk -a lsilogic

You should end up with a nicely formatted .vmdk file:

# cat rdm01.vmdk
# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="UTF-8"
CID=fffffffe
parentCID=ffffffff
isNativeSnapshot="no"
createType="vmfsPassthroughRawDeviceMap"

# Extent description
RW 2930277168 VMFSRDM "rdm01-rdmp.vmdk"

# The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "7"
ddb.longContentID = "b2fb0907ebc87f39d99073f1fffffffe"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 9b 29 b5 6d ec-bd 59 29 42 64 db 45 46"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "182401"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"


Now head back to the GUI and add the harddrive to the desired VM.

( Thank you http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php )