HOWTO: Add a new disk or LUN to a XEN virtual machine

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 1

Situation

Administrator wishes to add a new disk or LUN to an existing virtual machine

Resolution

Adding a new disk / LUN to a XEN virtual machine (dom0) consists of the following basic steps:

Make the disk / LUN visible to the XEN host (dom0)
Identify how the host views the new device
- Use fdisk -l
- Use multipath -l (if a multipath device)

Add the new disk device to the virtual machine using virt-manager as per documentation for the version of XEN you are running.
- When adding the disk, browse to either the /dev/disk/by-id path to the device or, for a multipath device, the /dev/disk/by-name path.

Additional Information

Additional useful documentation:

TID 000016223 Enabling shared/clustered disks within DomU's

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.