Create VMDK that is readable by multiple guests?

[jgullo]

We have a large Microsoft SQL database in an environment with 5-6 downstream test environments, all Windows servers.  We are moving to VMWare off of XenServer, and in the new environment, I have been asked if it is possible to create a very large (~14TB) storage lun for backups.  This would be write-able by the production server, but then readable by all of the downstream servers.  The reason to do this as a LUN (rather than an NFS or CIFS share) is because in the current environment, this causes network congestion with a noticeable user impact to the front-end.  Despite the new hardware having increased network capacity, the request is to direct this traffic over the SAN and not the network.

Is this possible?  I have searched the forums and most responses just say to use NFS, but before I present that back to my team I wanted clarification.  The new VMWare and SAN are a blank slate right now and I'm building all new guests, so I want to get this right now.

[TomHowarth · Accepted solution]

I would say no. from a supported point of view and if you need supported then the only supported way is with a NFS mount point.

however and this is something I have personally tried but could be possible to create a linked clone VMDK and assign that to the necessary read only machines,  this would get round any locking issues.

have a read of the following blog post for an idea of how to create this with a script

http://fewstreet.com/2014/05/30/creating-a-linked-clone-esxi.html