To align VMFS volumes, the alignment will be done at ESX server level using fdisk and at the VM level. This is because both the ESX Server and the clients will put MBRs on the LUNs. The ESX must align the VMFS volume, and the client systems must align their virtual disks.

<strong>To align the ESX server: (use 'fdisk -l" to display a listing of your hard drives)</strong>

1. On service console, execute fdisk /dev/sd&lt;x&gt; where sd&lt;x&gt; is the device on which you would like to create the VMFS.
2. Type "n" to create a new partition.
3. Type "p" to create a primary partition.
4. Type "1" to create partition #1.
5. Select the defaults to use the complete disk.
6. Type "x" to get into expert mode.
7. Type "b" to specify the starting block for partitions.
8. Type "1" to select partition #1.
9. Type "128" to make partition #1 to align on 64KB boundary.
10. Type "r" to return to the main menu.
11. Type "t" to change partition type.
12. Type "1" to select partition #1.  (THIS MAY ALREADY BE DONE)
13. Type "fb" to set the type to fb (VMFS volume).
14. Type "w" to write label and the partition information to disk
15. You can now create your VMFS volume using vmkfstools (Example: vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 1m -S server-vmlocal2 /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:1:0:1).

<strong>NOTE:</strong> By declaring the partition type as fb, the ESX server will recognize the partition as an unformatted VMFS volume. You should be able to put a VMFS file system on it using the MUI or vmkfstools. Next, the virtual disks for each VM must be aligned. For Linux VMs follow the procedure listed above. For Windows VMs, use the procedure for Windows using diskpart.