Identifying Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) using the vSphere Client

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to identify Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) attached to registered virtual machines using the vSphere Client.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable

Resolution

To identify RDMs using the vSphere Client:

1. Determine which RDM LUNs are part of an MSCS cluster. From the vSphere Client, select a virtual machine that has a mapping to the MSCS cluster RDM devices.
2. Edit your virtual machine settings and navigate to your Mapped RAW LUNs. In this example, Hard disk 2:
   
   
3. In the Physical, there is the specification of the device in use as RDM (that is, the vml ID).
4. Take note of the vml ID, which is a globally unique identifier for your shared device.
5. Identify the naa.id for this vml through the command esxcli storage core device list

esxcli storage core device list

naa.6589cfc000000a17ac02aae02067e747
   Display Name: FreeNAS iSCSI Disk (naa.6589cfc000000a17ac02aae02067e747)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 40960
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6589cfc000000a17ac02aae02067e747
   Vendor: FreeNAS
   Model: iSCSI Disk
   Revision: 0123
   SCSI Level: 6
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: degraded
   Is RDM Capable: true
   Is Local: false
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: false
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: supported
   Other UIDs: vml.010001000030303530353630313031303830310000695343534920
   Is Shared Clusterwide: true
   Is SAS: false
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot Device: false
   Device Max Queue Depth: 128
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
   Drive Type: unknown
   RAID Level: unknown
   Number of Physical Drives: unknown
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false
 

Additional Information

• Identifying disks when working with VMware ESXi
• Identifying virtual machines with Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) using PowerCLI
• Raw Device Mapping for local storage