Create vSAN SSD Disks from HDD

Just a quick blog to show you how to convert the non-SSD drive to SSD for your vSAN ESA lab.

With Nested Lab an HDD disk can be converted to an SSD disk by using ESXi as a VM and editing SCSI value of the HDD disk to 1 so the HDD disk will appear in the ESXi interface as an SSD disk. scsiX:Y.virtualSSD = 1

Attach 3 disks on the nested VM’s for vSAN Configuration 

The first disk will act as a cache disk with the remaining two act as the capacity tier. 

• 1*100 GB SSD or HDD – this acts as the cache tier
• 2*150GB SSD or HDD  – this acts as the capacity tier 

On the nested VM, run the command

[root@sfo01-m01-esx01:~] esxcfg-scsidevs -c

Device UID           Device Type      Console Device                           Size      Multipath PluginDisplay Name

mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0  CD-ROM           /vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0  314MB     NMP     Local NECVMWar CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0)

mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0  Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0  10240MB   NMP     Local VMware Disk (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0)

mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0  Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0  102400MB  NMP     Local VMware Disk (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0)

mpx.vmhba1:C0:T2:L0  Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T2:L0  153600MB  NMP     Local VMware Disk (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T2:L0)

mpx.vmhba1:C0:T3:L0  Direct-Access    /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T3:L0  153600MB  NMP     Local VMware Disk (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T3:L0)

The command below converts a normal HDD to SSD drive

esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL -d mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0 -o enable_ssd​

 esxcli storage core claiming reclaim -d mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0​
 
 esxcli storage core device list -d mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0​

Restart the VM

Another approach we can use if the above process doesn’t work is by adding configuration parameters to the individual disk files so lets take a look at how that’s done

Add new Hard disk to the ESXi nested VM

Under VM settings, record the scsi ID , eg: our 25 GB disk is on example scsi ID  0:2

Under Advanced tab > Select Edit Configurations

add scsi0:2.virtualSSD = 1 as below

Now Power on VM of the ESXi again ,

Now to check if the HDD disk became SSD Disk , open the ESXi from vSphere Client
select the ESXi and choose Configure then choose Storage in the Left >> Storage Devices