Mount physical drives within VM

[fruvos]

I wonder if anyone can help me with what is no doubt a pretty straightforward query, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere (probably because I'm searching the wrong terms). I have a server running Windows SBS2003 which I'm looking to virtualize. The hardware that its running on is quad core and has 8gb ram, which SBS can't take advantage of. What I'd like to do is recreate the SBS installation as a virtual machine through ESX Server, and then that gives me the advantage of being able to set up a couple of other VMs using the leftover machine resources.

My main question is as to whether or not I can use the existing physical drives within the SBS machine without reformatting them to the ESX filesystem? Currently the setup is as follows;

Drive1 (Boot disk) - SBS OS

Drive2 - Fileserve1

Drive3 - Fileserve2

Drive4 - Backup drive

Each drive is a SATA drive within the (soon to be) host pc. What I'd like to do is run ESX from a USB stick or CD, using what is currently Drive1 to store the .vmk files etc needed for the SBS virtual machine (and any others that I care to setup) I understand that this will need me to reformat Drive1, but that's not a problem. What I'd like to do, however, is be able to mount Drive2, Drive3, and Drive4 in the new virtualized SBS without having to erase and format them in the new filesystem (they're currently a NTFS for 2 and 3, and FAT32 for 4) Is this possible? If so, how?

I appreciate that (if I can mount these from within the virtual machine) I will only be able to mount them from one machine, but that's not a problem - other virtual machines will then access them from shares on on the virtual SBS installation and have enough space allocated on Drive1 for their own .vmk needs.

Will this work? Does anyone have any info on how to go about setting it up and configuring it?

TIA

f

[weinstein5]

If you are going to use the SBS server as your ESX Server then no you will not be able to - best is back up the drives build a m and restore the data -

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[fruvos]

I'm going to use the SBS hardware as the host for ESX, but am happy to erase the system disc and reinstall completely as a VM. All I'm looking to do is mount the other, non-OS drives in the machine as drives in the VM but leaving their data and filesystem intact. Is that not possible?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Not exactly and perhaps not. The ability for a VM to access local storage depends on the RAID controller, how it presents things, and how the disks appear within the VIC or at all. I would do a complete backup. But also look at the HCL for ESX and see if the SBS server even fits the qualifications for ESX. Specifically teh SATA controller. If not then virtualization is not an option.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

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