V vols or vmfs 6

[jprovine7]

It has been suggested to me that it might be more advantageous to go to v vols instead of reformatting my SAN storage and going to vmfs 6. Anyone out there using v vols and what you think pros and cons?

[daphnissov]

VVols vs VMFS is a subject of protracted discussion which, if you really want to get into the guts of each, I can suggest some books, articles, and white papers. In short, though, at this stage in its maturity and in part due to ecosystem support, it is safest to stay with VMFS especially if you're a novice user who do not have great technical experience and proficiency with vSphere on the whole and storage-policy-based management in specific.

[jprovine7]

I would be interested in your recommendation for reading. where I work it is a learn as you go we have no really experts and cover a wide variety of technology. So you are saying that it might be better wait for the technology to become more stable and widely used before I attempt it. But moving all my vm's to the other SAN, recreating my SAN file system to vmfs6 is a pretty big deal too. LOL

[daphnissov]

Yes, that is my recommendation at this time. I can provide some materials at a later time. As far as VMFS-6, that does not require a wholesale reformatting of your array, and if that's what you were told then it's incorrect.

[jprovine7]

Are there step by step instruction somewhere on this site

[daphnissov]

For what? Migrating to VMFS-6?

[jprovine7]

migrating to vmfs6

[daphnissov]

It's in the product documentation. Please refer to the storage document for either vSphere 6.5 or 6.7.

[SupreetK]

If this is what you are looking for

VMware Knowledge Base​

Cheers,

Supreet

[jprovine7]

Yes that's what I was looking for

[jprovine7]

Wow this is all there is to it? Move all your vm's to another storage device and do this

PowerCLI cmdlet “Update-VmfsDatastore” can be used to update datastore from VMFS 5 to VMFS 6.     :smileyshocked:

[jprovine7]

Just curious but this document that supreetk provided refers to this as an upgrade

VMware Knowledge Base

[SupreetK · Accepted solution]

PowerCLI cmdlet “Update-VmfsDatastore” deletes the existing VMFS-5 datastore to create a VMFS-6 datastore. More details in the below link -

Online Documentation - Cmdlet Reference - VMware {code}

Cheers,

Supreet

[jprovine7]

Now I just have to find enough space to move all of my vm's off while I do it :smileymischief:

[jprovine7]

So do all of your datastores have to be vmfs6 or can you mix and match?

[SupreetK]

AFAIK, you can have a mix of VMFS-5 and VMFS-6. Personally, I have seen a lot of mixed happy environments

Cheers,

Supreet