ESX Memory

[ashesh]

Hi All,

I have a doubt regarding installing virtual machine (Guest OS) on top of ESX 4 server.

We have purchase 2 ESX server each with 100gb storage size,and we plan to create 50 Virtual machine on each ESX...may  i know that dose Virtusl machine (Guest OS) only share the memory from ESX server (100GB),or can i use some external Hard disk splace also .

Hope u can understand wht i mean to ask...

Thanks and Regards

Ashesh

[mittim12]

So are you asking if ESX has a storage saving technique similar to their memory saving features?    On a storage side you can always use thin provisioned disk which means the OS will see whatever the upper limit of the disk is set to but the allocated will only equal to what is being used.

Is that along the lines of what you are looking for? 

[ashesh]

Hi,

Thanx for ur reply...But i guess i need to eloborate my Question...

We currently have three servers... Two will be used to HOST ESX 4 (100 GB each) and the third one is our Dept Server called IT Filer (5 TB)

When i install ESX 4 in the first server i get a screen to select DATASTORE. i find two options in that saying

1.Create new Datastore

2.Use existing Datastore

If i select option 1,dose it use the local Storage memory of ESX server (100gb)

And is it possible to use the IT Filer Disk space to Install Virtual VM on top of ESX HOST.if yes,then which option should i select of two above...

Sorry for not being so clear with my question,i have just started into basics of VMWARE.

Thanx for your time

[mcowger]

Unless you have an iSCSI or fiberchannel connection to your hosts, they will use the internal storage.

You can create and run VMs on your IT filer if it supports the NFS protocol.

[ashesh]

Thand buddy....

Can u provide any good source of information from where i can  make iSCSI connection between my ESX host and IT FILER (NetApp).

Any document or video tutorial to help out....

[mcowger]

Check out the NetApp Best Practices Guide:

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3749.pdf

[ashesh]

Can i also make use of SAN RAW DEVICE mapping to share the storage between VMFS and NETAPP

[ashesh]

As discussed with my Network admin.he said we do have Fibrechannel connectors in place....is the connection different from using iSCSI ?