Is it OK to add external USB disk to ESXi host and run VM guests on external USB disk ?

[tamuxu]

We use vSphere 4.1.

We lack disk space of vShere 4.1 ESXi.

Is it OK to add external USB disk to ESXi host and run VM guests on external USB disk in test environment  ?

[npadmani]

I don't think it's supported by VMware to have USB storage as VMFS datastore in vSphere 4.1 or even later versions.

so if you are being asked this question in an interview. Answer would be 'NO'.

[tamuxu]

Thank you.

Only ways to add storage spaces are add local disk or use NAS or SAN ?

[npadmani]

that's right.

use either locally attached RAID controller based disks (That way you have better availability and performance)

or external storage boxes are best as your VMFS/NFS datastore.

[tamuxu]

Thank you.

Is it OK to use external USB as VM guests image backup location ?