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Rajkumar76
Contributor
Contributor

differences

I have couple of questions

1. What is VMFS & VMDK

2. Can someone help me understand the difference between vmfs 2 & vmfs 3.

3. What is the difference between esx 2 & esx 3

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

FYI: this thread has been moved to the Strategy and Planning forum.

Oliver Reeh

VMware Communities User Moderator

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IB_IT
Expert
Expert

1. What is VMFS & VMDK

vmfs is the file system used by VMWare in the virtual infrastructure. VMDK files are the data partitions of your VMs...ex, if I have a Windows VM with a C drive and D drive (separate drives), then VMWare shows each of these disks as one file...vmservernameCdrvie.vmdk and vmservernameDdrive.vmdk.

2. Can someone help me understand the difference between vmfs 2 & vmfs 3.

vmfs 3 is the file system used by VI3...ESX 3.x and above must use this in order to function correctly. vmfs2 is the old file system used by ESX 2.x.

3. What is the difference between esx 2 & esx 3

There are many differences and enhancements to esx 3 as opposed to esx2. Most of which are seen if you manage your servers through Virtual Center. You would need install VC 2.x to see ESX 3.x hosts...there is a compatibility matrix that can tell you which version of VC to use for managing a particular version of esx. ESX 2 uses the MUI for many management operations. ESX 3 does not use MUI.

note my 1st response, it is not the actual names of the vmdk files, I'm jus ttrying to show that different "physical" drives will be different vmdk files.

ESX 3/VC 2 provide enhancements to HA, DRS, VM settings, managability...and much more.

Message was edited by: IB_IT

ejward
Expert
Expert

VMDK is the file extension for the hard disk file on a virtual machine.

VMFS is the underlying disk format that the VM's reside on with ESX. instead of NTFS, the partition is formated with VMFS. The latest version is v3. I believe version 3 is more efficent than version 2. One feature added in v3 is the ability to create folders. In v2, all the VMs were dumped in the root I believe. v2 was a long time ago.

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rriva
Expert
Expert

I have couple of questions

1. What is VMFS & VMDK

vmfs is the vmware propertary file system used to store vm's related files and folder on VI3

vmdkis the extension of vmware's virtual machines virtual disks files

i have no much time to answer to te 2nd and the 3rd questions ... maybe tomorrow

Riccardo Riva

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RRiva | http://about.me/riccardoriva | http://www.riccardoriva.com
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azn2kew
Champion
Champion

Here is a details information for your questions.

There is no need for ESX 2.5 to ESX 3.5 comparison, if you're planning using VMware you neither go with ESX 3.0.2 Update 1 or ESX 3.5 there is performance bottleneck problems with older ESX 2.5 and newer products have better architecture and rebustness built in. Also features such as HA, DRS, VMotion, Storage VMotion, Update Manager, VCB, DPM all greatly integrated and enhanced.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems LLC.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!! Regards, Stefan Nguyen VMware vExpert 2009 iGeek Systems Inc. VMware vExpert, VCP 3 & 4, VSP, VTSP, CCA, CCEA, CCNA, MCSA, EMCSE, EMCISA
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