esxi 5.5, VMFS 5 datastore / vmdk size question

[trink408]

Trying to verify I understand the vmdk size limitation for esxi 5.5.

If I have an existing VMFS 5 datastore on my esxi 5.0 hosts, once I upgrade my hosts to esxi 5.5 I should then be able to have vm's with vmdk's larger than 2tb?

I don't have to create new VMFS 5 datastores after the upgrade to esxi5.5 to take advanrage of the file size limit change?

Thanks for any help.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

That's correct, at least partly. In addition to upgrading the host you also need to upgrade the VM's hardware version (Compatibility Mode) to take advantage of larger virtual disks (up to ~62TB). However, always keep in mind the time required to restore the whole virtual disk in case it's required. With 1 GBit/s - assuming you have the full bandwidth available - 2TB will already require more than 5 hours! So maybe organizing the data in multiple virtual disks might be a better solution.

André

[trink408]

Thanks for the details Andre.

I agree larger volumes aren't ideal, but we have a large in house graphics shop, and sometimes trying to split up all the volumes to stay under 1-2tb becomes more administration then giving them some extra room to grow.

Kevin