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VMware - How to re-enable 2GB Sparse Disks on ESXi
#1 · September 27, 2018, 3:08 pm
While using vmkfstools utility on VMware ESX 6.0 I wanted to import a 2gbsparse disk but it failed. Why and how to import such disk on my VMware ESX 6.0 infrastructure?
#2 · September 27, 2018, 3:10 pm
A 2gbsparse disk is a virtual disk that is split into 2 gigabyte chunks: this kind of format is accepted usually only on VMware desktop solutions.
By default the 2GB Sparse disk format is disabled since ESXi version 5.1 and higher. If you try to import a disk in 2GB disk format you'll get the following error:
| # vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/storage/myVM/myVM.vmdk -d thin myVM.vmdk Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/storage/myVM/myVM.vmdk': The system cannot find the file specified (25). |
Test if you have sparse format enabled:
| esxcli system module list | grep multiextent |
If sparse format is not enabled you get no output, if it is enabled, the output is like:
| esxcli system module list | grep multiextent multiextent true true |
You can enable the 2GB disk format by using:
| esxcli system module load -m multiextent |