How to add a Hard disk drive direct to VM on ESXi?

[Hienlp781987]

Hi guys,

I installed ESXi 7.0U1 on Dell R630 server. My hardware:

- CPU E5 2680 v4 (2 CPUs)

- RAM 128 GB DDR4 2400 MHz ECC Reg (16 GB x8)

- SSD 240GB x2 (RAID 1) for ESXi installing

- SSD 960GB x5 (RAID5 +1 Spare) for Datastorage (all VMs are location here)

- HDD 2 TB stand alone (non RAID)

Now I create one VMware 03 and I want to add HDD 2 TB stand alone direct to this VM.

Purpose: backup data from VM to this hard disk, if server have any issue, I will connect this hard disk to other PC to take backup files

Could you please show me how to do this?

# I have an option to connect this HDD direct to VM via USB connect, but I still want to connect it via SATA interface if it possible.

[scott28tt]

If the disk is visible to ESXi you could add it to the VM as an RDM: Add an RDM Disk to a Virtual Machine

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

depending on the RAID controller, it may work to present the disk as a JBOD, or single disk RAID0 to the operating system (ESXi), and attach it to a VM as a RDM.

However, please be aware of https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017530 ​

André

[Hienlp781987]

Hi André,

Thank you for your answer.

If I add HDD to a VM as a RDM and format as NTFS, I can read data if I connect it to a windows PC, right?

[a_p_]

That depends on whether the RAID controller adds additional information on the disk (likely when configuring it as RAID0). I'd suggest that you test this, after creating the RDM, and formatting the volume from the VM.

André