Virtual Hard Drive Recomendations

[amcdougall]

Hello,

I am setting up a VM in ESXi as a simple file server and I am curious if it is better to set up a single virtual hard drive and partition it as needed for drive access or to set up multiple virtual hard drives? In both scenarios the virtual hard drives will be stored in a single datastore.

Thanks!

- Adam

[DSTAVERT · Accepted solution]

I would use multiple VMDKs. It is easier to deal with smaller VMDKs especially if there are different classes of files on the different disks. (really important lots of change, static reference data, lower importance minimal change etc). Very large disks can be difficult to migrate.

[mcowger]

Gotta agree here - smaller VMDKs are better.

[virtzgiri]

smaller vmdk are easier to migrate and easier to maintain...so smaller the better