6.5.1

Table 2‑21. Partitions Created by ESXi on the Host Drive
ESXi Version Partitions Created
ESXi Installable For fresh installations, several new partitions are created for the
boot banks, the scratch partition, and the locker. Fresh ESXi
installations use GUID Partition Tables (GPT) instead of
MSDOS-based partitioning. The partition table itself is fixed as
part of the binary image, and is written to the disk at the time the
system is installed. The ESXi installer leaves the scratch and
VMFS partitions blank and ESXi creates them when the host is
rebooted for the first time after installation or upgrade. One 4GB
VFAT scratch partition is created for system swap. See About
the Scratch Partition. The VFAT scratch partition is created only
on the disk from which the ESXi host is booting.
Note To create the VMFS volume and a scratch partition with
the installation, the ESXi installer requires a minimum of 5.2GB
of free space on the installation disk.
The installer affects only the installation disk. The installer does
not affect other disks of the server. When you install on a disk,
the installer overwrites the entire disk. When the installer
autoconfigures storage, the installer does not overwrite
hardware vendor partitions. During ESXi installation, the installer
creates a 110MB diagnostic partition for core dumps.
ESXi Embedded One 110MB diagnostic partition for core dumps, if this partition is
not present on another disk. The VFAT scratch and diagnostic
partitions are created only on the disk from which the ESXi host
is booting. On other disks, the software creates one VMFS5
partition per blank disk, using the whole disk. Only blank disks
are formatted.
Both ESXi Installable and ESXi Embedded One VMFS5 partition on the remaining free space.
You might want to override this default behavior if, for example, you use shared storage devices instead
of local storage. To prevent automatic disk formatting, detach the local storage devices from the host
under the following circumstances:
n
Before you start the host for the first time.
n
Before you start the host after you reset the host to the configuration defaults.
To override the VMFS formatting if automatic disk formatting already occurred, you can remove the
datastore. See the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.
About the Scratch Partition
For new installations of ESXi, during the autoconfiguration phase, a 4-GB VFAT scratch partition is
created if the partition is not present on another disk.
Note Partitioning for hosts that are upgraded to ESXi 5.x from ESXi versions earlier than version 5.0
differs significantly from partitioning for new installations of ESXi 5.x. See the vSphere Upgrade
documentation.
vSphere Installation and Setup
VMware, Inc. 209