vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-storage-guide

Working with Datastores 16Datastores are logical containers, analogous to file systems, that hide specifics of each storage device andprovide a uniform model for storing virtual machine files. Datastores can also be used for storing ISOimages, virtual machine templates, and floppy images.Information in this topic applies primarily to VMFS and NFS datastores. For information about Virtual SANdatastores, see Chapter 19, “Working with Virtual SAN,” on page 173.You use the to access different types of storage devices that your ESXi host discovers and to deploydatastores on them.Depending on the type of storage you use, datastores can be backed by the following file system formats:• Virtual Machine File System (VMFS). See “Understanding VMFS Datastores,” on page 134.• Network File System (NFS). See “Understanding NFS Datastores,” on page 138.After creating datastores, you can organize them in different ways. For example, you can group them intofolders according to business practices. This allows you to assign the same permissions and alarms on thedatastores in the group at one time.You can also add datastores to datastore clusters. A datastore cluster is a collection of datastores with sharedresources and a shared management interface. When you create a datastore cluster, you can use StorageDRS to manage storage resources. For information about datastore clusters, see the vSphere ResourceManagement documentation.This chapter includes the following topics:• “Understanding VMFS Datastores,” on page 134• “Understanding NFS Datastores,” on page 138• “Creating Datastores,” on page 139• “Managing Duplicate VMFS Datastores,” on page 141• “Upgrading VMFS Datastores,” on page 142• “Increasing VMFS Datastore Capacity,” on page 144• “Rename VMFS or NFS Datastores in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 145• “Unmount VMFS or NFS Datastores,” on page 145• “Mount VMFS Datastores,” on page 146• “Remove VMFS Datastores in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 146• “Storage Filtering,” on page 147• “Set Up Dynamic Disk Mirroring,” on page 148VMware, Inc. 133