ESX and IDE VMDK`s

[Felix001]

I know this discussion has been going on for years, but why oh why is there no support for IDE disks in ESX, it would be such a great feature ....

Is there any way to fool or trick ESX to use a IDE drive.I knowit alredy uses a IDE CD-ROM so i cant see adding a hard disk feature would be too difficult...

[AndreTheGiant]

I think that there isn't a simple answer.

SCSI disks are best than IDE (also in virtual ).

You can have more the 4 disks.

It's a limitation/design feature of ESX.

Andre

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[Felix001]

Cant VM just add this feature...there are tons of UNIX based systems and legecy OS`s which use IDE and are a complete pain to migrate to SCSI....

I mean you can do it fine with XEN... of which I am thinking to moving to (and my consultancy contracts) if i cannot get this resolved..

[wila]

Hi,

This is one of the new features in vSphere:

from:

http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2009/04/more-new-stuff-in-vsphere.html

Virtual Machine Enhancements

You can now hot add CPU, memory, and other PCI devices on supported guests (Windows 2008, some newer linux). New Para virtualized network and storage drivers are now available. There is also now IDE disk support in ESX. This should allow VMs with IDE disks that only previously worked on VMware Workstation to run in ESX.

--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

Visit the VMware developers wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

[Felix001]

interesting.... what about if you import an esxi machine into vSphere ??

The problem is, is you have a single company with a bunch of VM`s, you will need to buy vSphere and ESX, seems like a big cost.... most companies would like a single Virutalised solution .....

[AndreTheGiant]

what about if you import an esxi machine into vSphere ??

You have two option:

leave as is (with OLD virtual hardware and NO new features)

simply upgrade the virtual hardware (VM must be powered off) and use the new version.

Andre

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[Felix001]

Sorry, I meant ... Can you import a ESXi box into vSphere ??

[wila]

Hi,

vSphere is ESX4.0 soon to be released... VERY soon.

Of course there is an upgrade path from ESX3i to ESX4i.

--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

Visit the VMware developers wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

[AndreTheGiant]

I meant ... Can you import a ESXi box into vSphere ??

vShere is simple the new name of Virtual Infrastructure.

If you have a capable CPU (must be 64 bit) you can upgrade from ESX 3i to ESX 4i.

Andre

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[Felix001]

ok, im a bit confused you say that Vsphere is ESX4 but also say that its Virtual Infrastructure.

I thought these 2 where seperate, you have your ESX boxes which are then imported and managed via your Virtual Infrastructure server.

If so does that mean soon there will be an upgrade for ESXi so that I would ony need to upgrade this box for the new IDE feature....

What plans are there for ESXi users to allow for them to have a IDE feature..???

[AndreTheGiant]

vShere 4 (ESX4 + vCenter Server4 + ...) is a new name (and version) of Virtual Infrastructure 3 (ESX3 + VC2 + ...)

There will be again a free version that is simple ESX4i

Andre

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[Felix001]

in my instance this doesnt really help me out at im using 32-bit based hardware...

[AndreTheGiant]

in my instance this doesnt really help me out at im using 32-bit based hardware..

In this case you cannot use neither XenServer. It required a 64 processor.

Andre

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[Felix001]

So i take it anyone using a 32bit server to run esxi will never be able to use a virtual machine with IDE virtual disks.... ??

[wila]

Correct, you can however use the -free- VMware server instead and use virtual IDE disks on that platform.

--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

Visit the VMware developers wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com