How to share data between ESXi server and Guest OS?

[somebodyHelpme]

I want to know how ESXi can share data between the Host and Guest os, such as shared folder in vmware Workstation. Or how can the Guest OS recognize ESXi storage?

[dbalcaraz]

Hi,

The best way to access is by SCP. If you are on Windows you can install WinSCP and transfer files between the host and the server.

I don't know which is the objective by sharing the same storage between a Guest OS and the ESXi (because normally ESXi uses local storage (not mandatory)).

[continuum · Accepted solution]

You can not compare Workstation with ESXi when it comes to shared folder.
A Workstation with a Windows host for example uses NTFS as its filesystem. NTFS is designed for storing lots and lots of files so there will be no issue if some parts of the filesystem are shared with  one or more guests.
ESXi uses VMFS and that is a completely different system. VMFS is optimized to store a comparably small number of very large files.
If you abuse this filesystem to store the files that a typical desktop user creates and needs you would very quickly exhaust the number of available files of the VMFS filesystem.
That is why it is a very bad idea to store normal files on a VMFS-filesystem.
With NTFS or standard Linux filesystems like EXT3/4 you can have millions of files in a partition.
With VMFS the maximal possible number of files per volume is in the range of 30.000 for a 2TB datastore.
So with this in mind it should be clear why there is no "shared folders" function.

[markparkinson]

Thanks for clarification.
This question always interested me and now I know that Workstation cannot be compared with ESXi when it comes to shared folder.
Thanks!

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