Just one more esxi-guy: September 2017

One of the coolest (and most dangerous) commands in vSAN is objtool. Since this datastore is not vmfs but vsanfs (and object based), the objtool command is the utility that performs different tasks such as creating, resizing and deleting objects.

What follows is a series of examples on how to use such command:

# find / -name objtool
/usr/lib/vmware/osfs/bin/objtool

# cd /usr/lib/vmware/osfs/bin

Want to learn how to use the command?

# ./objtool --help

usage: ./objtool <cmd> <options>

Commands:

create Create an object.

-s/--size n size in bytes (or KB, MB, GB or TB)

-n/--name <string> Optional user-friendly name.

-m/--haMetaData <string> Optional HA metadata.

-p/--policy <string> Optional VSAN policy.

-g/--groupUuid <string> Optional groupUuid of the object.

-a/--allocType <value> Allocation Type.

0 - Thick (default)

1 - Eager Zeroed Thick

2 - Zeroed Thick

3 - Thin

--capabilities <value> Capability flags.

0 - None (default)

1 - Strict GWE (VsanSparse)

-t/--objClass <value> Object Class.

0 - vdisk (default)

1 - snapshot

2 - vmnamespace

3 - vmswap

4 - vmem

5 - sidecar

6 - hbrpersist

7 - coredump

delete Delete an object.

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

-f/--forceDelete Optional force delete mode

open Create a node for an object in DevFS.

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

setAttr Set attributes of an object

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

-n/--name <string> Optional user-friendly name.

-m/--haMetaData <string> Optional HA metadata.

-d/--descPath <string> Optional descriptor path.

--capabilities <value> Capability flags.

0 - None (default)

1 - Strict GWE (VsanSparse)

getAttr Get attributes of an object

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

-c/--isComponent Specified uuid is a component uuid

-x/--diskUuid Disk uuid of the component

--bypassDom Bypass DOM and read from LSOM

--format Pretty print the output

(Currently, only JSON)

resize Resize an object

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

-s/--size n size in bytes (or KB, MB, GB or TB)

-l/--lockFilePath <path> Lock file path for the object

truncate Truncate an object

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

-s/--size n size in bytes (or KB, MB, GB or TB)

setPolicy Set policy of an object

-u/--uuid UUID of the object.

-p/--policy <string> VSAN policy.

setMirror Set the read mirror for an object

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

-r/--readMirror n mirror to use (-1 to unset)

reset Reset object.

-u/--uuid UUID of the object

Global Options

-v/--verbose Verbosity level.

-q/--quiet No need to print success messages

-h/--help Print this message.

# cat /vmfs/volumes/vsanDatastore/testvm/testvm.vmdk

# Disk DescriptorFile

version=4

encoding="UTF-8"

CID=d68d61b2

parentCID=ffffffff

isNativeSnapshot="no"

createType="vmfs"

# Extent description

RW 2097152 VMFS "vsan://2cc4ca59-f4d8-43c3-9a0b-005056013df7" <-- notice this object id

# The Disk Data Base

#DDB

ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"

ddb.deletable = "true"

ddb.geometry.cylinders = "512"

ddb.geometry.heads = "128"

ddb.geometry.sectors = "32"

ddb.longContentID = "14bf5c5d81a00d863d0b300fd68d61b2"

ddb.thinProvisioned = "1"

ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 9b 2d 72 3f 5c-1c 8a 12 5f ca f9 2d 38"

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "13"

Want to delete an object? Better have a backup...

# ./objtool delete -u 2cc4ca59-f4d8-43c3-9a0b-005056013df7 -f

Will this delete the object? You bet... Better have a good backup.

Notice that after the components for the virtual disk object are no longer present.

What about renaming an object? Objtool to the rescue...

# ls -lh

total 5120

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 2.1K Sep 26 21:18 26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1.9K Sep 12 15:38 3fc7ad59-ef19-ba92-6088-005056013e28

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1.4K Sep 26 17:56 6986ca59-70d0-0591-c8ff-005056013df7

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 3.0K Sep 26 21:18 bfc6ad59-b712-25d2-8939-005056013e24

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1.9K Sep 15 17:40 cac7ad59-f2ac-2d3c-e054-005056013e28

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:27 javier01 -> 6986ca59-70d0-0591-c8ff-005056013df7

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:27 testvm -> 26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7 <--notice this line and the name

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:27 ub1404lts1 -> bfc6ad59-b712-25d2-8939-005056013e24

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:27 ub1404lts2 -> 3fc7ad59-ef19-ba92-6088-005056013e28

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:27 ub1404lts5 -> cac7ad59-f2ac-2d3c-e054-005056013e28

# /usr/lib/vmware/osfs/bin/objtool setAttr -u 26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7 -n newtestvm

Object set attribute succeeded

# /etc/init.d/osfsd restart

watchdog-osfsd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 312029

Waiting for process to terminate...

osfsd stopped

osfsd started

# ls -lh

total 5120

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 2.1K Sep 26 21:18 26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1.9K Sep 12 15:38 3fc7ad59-ef19-ba92-6088-005056013e28

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1.4K Sep 26 17:56 6986ca59-70d0-0591-c8ff-005056013df7

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 3.0K Sep 26 21:18 bfc6ad59-b712-25d2-8939-005056013e24

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1.9K Sep 15 17:40 cac7ad59-f2ac-2d3c-e054-005056013e28

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:30 javier01 -> 6986ca59-70d0-0591-c8ff-005056013df7

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:30 newtestvm -> 26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7 <-- notice the new name

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:30 ub1404lts1 -> bfc6ad59-b712-25d2-8939-005056013e24

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:30 ub1404lts2 -> 3fc7ad59-ef19-ba92-6088-005056013e28

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36 Sep 26 21:30 ub1404lts5 -> cac7ad59-f2ac-2d3c-e054-005056013e28

Want information about an object?

# /usr/lib/vmware/osfs/bin/objtool getAttr -u 26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7

Object Attributes --

UUID:26c4ca59-1028-c0c6-e31d-005056013df7

Object type:vsan

Object size:273804165120

User friendly name:newtestvm

HA metadata:(null)

Allocation type:Thick

Policy:((\"stripeWidth\" i1) (\"cacheReservation\" i0) (\"proportionalCapacity\" i0) (\"hostFailuresToTolerate\" i1) (\"forceProvisioning\" i0) (\"spbmProfileId\" \"aa6d5a82-1c88-45da-85d3-3d74b91a5bad\") (\"spbmProfileGenerationNumber\" l+0) (\"spbmProfileName\" \"vSAN Default Storage Policy\"))

Object class: vmnamespace

Object capabilities: NONE

Object path: /vmfs/volumes/vsan:521305e4430dd845-d59b1943736fdc88/

And how do I create an object?

# /usr/lib/vmware/osfs/bin/objtool create -s 1KB -a 1 -t 0-n javierobject

Creating object of size 1024 bytes
Setting object class to 0
UUID:3184dd59-c0ea-6ab8-b241-005056013df7how do I create my own object?

Note: The previous command creates an object using the default policy. This could be verified also with the rvc.

Note: Add the -t 0 option to the previous command to create a vdisk object. This can also be verified with the rvc.

Creating and removing directories in a vSAN datastore is not as simple as using mkdir and rmdir or rm -rf because the vSAN datastore is object based. In order to do that, special vSAN related commands exist to perform such tasks.

Notice what happens if you try to use the mkdir command:

# cd /vmfs/volumes/vsanDatastore
# mkdir testdir
mkdir: can't create directory 'testdir': Function not implemented

The commands that follow perform the same tasks as the icon with the green plus sign on the web client. These commands should be used if the vCenter server is not available.