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ToyTrain
Contributor
Contributor

Connecting NTFS drive to ESXi 4.0 Server

Hello,

I have connected a SATA disk to the ESXi Server. Now if i add this to server through add storage drive, i lose all the data. What i want to achieve is to connect to this hard drive as it is.

I know its not possible directly as its not LFS, but will it be possible anyway where i can run a windows VM and connect this physical drive to it?

Does anyone know if ESXi can connect the disk in the raw format to the VM. If it can then the Windows machine should be able to detect it.

Any thoughts?

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marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

Connecting RDMs to local disks are not a supported operation on ESX. Sorry about that.

I think that if you dig a bit on communities or internet maybe someone have a non supported workaround for this. I would try using "vmkfstools -r " from inside the usupported console and then attach the disk to the VM, but don't know if this works.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

Virtualization Tech Master

Globant Argentina

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

Marcelo Soares
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PaulSvirin
Expert
Expert

Maybe you should have a look at this doc : http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10978

Hope it will give you the ideas.

---

iSCSI SAN software

http://www.starwindsoftware.com

--- iSCSI SAN software http://www.starwindsoftware.com
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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

Unfortunately seems that RDM on local disk does not work on ESXi.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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