6.5.1

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After you extend the disk, you might need to update the file system on the disk. As a result, the guest
operating system recognizes the new size of the disk and can use it.
Upgrading Virtual Disks
This option converts the specified virtual disk file from ESX Server 2 formats to the ESXi format.
Use this option to convert virtual disks of type LEGACYSPARSE, LEGACYPLAIN, LEGACYVMFS,
LEGACYVMFS_SPARSE, and LEGACYVMFS_RDM.
-M|--migratevirtualdisk
Creating a Virtual Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
Use the vmkfstools command to create a Raw Device Mapping (RDM) file on a VMFS volume and map a
raw LUN to this file. After this mapping is established, you can access the LUN as you would a normal
VMFS virtual disk. The file length of the mapping is the same as the size of the raw LUN it points to.
-r|--createrdm device
When specifying the device parameter, use the following format:
/vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID:P
Example: Example for Creating a Virtual Compatibility Mode RDM
In this example, you create an RDM file named my_rdm.vmdk and map the disk_ID raw disk to that file.
vmkfstools -r /vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID my_rdm.vmdk
You can configure a virtual machine to use the my_rdm.vmdk mapping file by adding the following lines to
the virtual machine configuration file:
scsi0:0.present = TRUE
scsi0:0.fileName = /vmfs/volumes/myVMFS/my_rdm.vmdk
Creating a Physical Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
Use the vmkfstools command to map a pass-through raw device to a file on a VMFS volume. With the
mapping, a virtual machine can bypass ESXi SCSI command filtering when accessing its virtual disk. This
type of mapping is useful when the virtual machine must send proprietary SCSI commands, for example,
when SAN-aware software runs on the virtual machine.
-z|--createrdmpassthru device
After you establish this type of mapping, you can use it to access the raw disk as you access any other
VMFS virtual disk.
vSphere Storage
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