Create iSCSI volume larger than 2 TB

Question

Hi, is it possible to create an iSCSI volume larger than 2 TB? We have a customer requirement for drives larger than 2 TB and there appears to be no way to do this in the GUI

Sriky · Accepted Answer

Hi,The 2TB is actually SCSI 2 protocol limit which the VNXe uses and not an iSCSI limitation.You can still have volume more than 2 TB by adding them as extents.Ex: If you have a VMware ESX environment.&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0; Create a LUN of 2 TB and format with VMFS and create a datastore and you can create another LUN of 2TB in size and you can add it as extent.&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0; ESX host supports upto 32 extents. So, you can have a datastore as large as 64TB.Regards,Sri

eerreer · Answer

The maximum iSCSI virtual disk size on a VNXe is 2TB.

WVX1 · Answer

Is there any plans to change this? Surely with the new vSphere 5 ability for VMFS datastores larger than 2 TB this would be useful?

mpgordon · Answer

This feature is being considered for a future release but there has been no commitment.

WVX1 · Answer

Hi, although i gave the vmware 5 as an example my exact problem is a client who requires drives bigger than 2 TB in windows ( a SQL server VM)

I tried creating multiple 2 TB drives on the VNXe then creating dynamic disks in Windows and striping them, however we lost some performance doing that.

kbuff-zetron.co · Answer

In which case, I'd like to add my vote on implementing the ability to have a larger LUN. We have a file server that can use this already, and it's definitely impacting the migration to our new VNXe.

Thanks,

Kurt

trevor_p1 · Answer

Please add me to the list of users that would like >2TB iSCSI LUN support. We're in the process of replacing our old HP MSA2000 G1 SAN with a VNXe and there are two things with the VNXe that are a real nuisance:

2TB iSCSI LUN Limit
Inability to create a 12-disk RAID-6 set (In our case, this wastes 4TB of usable space!)

I've seen a number of cheaper SANs that don't suffer from these limitations, so why is EMC crippling the VNXe range?

eerreer · Answer

VNXe and AX are very different products, and the iSCSI implementation of each operating environment is different.

nda111 · Answer

quick question on the 2 TB limit..... Why could the predessor of the vnxe... the ax150 creat a 2+ TB lun

Newmar2 · Answer

I need this option ASAP

You cannot span 2 LUNs for CSV (cluster shared volume) storage on windows server 2012.

I am going to be stuck managing 10 different 2 TB Luns... which is NOT ideal, and cramps my expandability. Please update Unisphere to allow for up to 64TB Luns.

Thanks.

VNX

Create iSCSI volume larger than 2 TB

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