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danIme
Contributor
Contributor

What VMware product can create SATA virtual hard disks?

HI, i want to emulate a system with SATA hard disks, not SCSI, not parallel ATA, can i do this in VMware Workstation or i need something els?

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java_cat33
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

All my virtual machines created within VMware Workstation run on SATA hard disks. You should be fine using VMware Server too (which is free).

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danIme
Contributor
Contributor

Not to be confused, i said "i want to emulate a system with SATA hard disks" and in the title "create SATA virtual hard disks", i am not referring to the host's hard disks that can be almost any type.

If there is no confusion, can you please explain further how to do this?

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devzero
Expert
Expert

there is support for virtual SAS in recent VMware products, but i never heard about SATA being possible.

danIme
Contributor
Contributor

I chose the SAS adapter as it can control a SATA hdd and then chose IDE hard disk and it created parallel ATA hard disk an now i know why, because IDE adapter is always created in VM and if i choose IDE, VMware pass it to the IDE adapter.

As you say, nor VMware server nor els product can see hard disks as SATA...

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

>I chose the SAS adapter as it can control a SATA hdd and then chose IDE hard disk and it created parallel ATA hard disk an now i know why, because IDE adapter is always created in VM and if i choose IDE, VMware pass it to the IDE adapter.

? - its your free choice which adapter and disks you want in a VM.

And FYI the SAS-controller in a VM only uses scsi-disks

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay


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Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

danIme
Contributor
Contributor

"And FYI the SAS-controller in a VM only uses scsi-disks"

That same thing i was trying to say, so i was not free to choose the disk in this case.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

HMM - whats the problem ?

VMware uses IDE, Buslogic SCSI, Lsilogic SCSI or SAS SCSI - and which one you want is your choice.

The GUI only presets the virtual device used for the first scsi-controller - depending on your choice for the guestOS = ? parameter.

But you can change this if want ...

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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danIme
Contributor
Contributor

I know. What you enumerated were hdd controllers, and then you have the choice for hard disk drive.

The issue would be that if i choose SAS controller and then IDE hard disk drive, VMware changes SAS in IDE controller, and creates hdd as a default of parallel ATA.

I think would not be an inconvenient to me using SAS instead of SATA hdd, just for software compatibility between VM and host, i don't know.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

I think would not be an inconvenient to me using SAS instead of SATA hdd, just for software compatibility between VM and host, i don't know.

The guest OS is completely isolated from your host as far as hardware concerns. It is not in the know on what kind of hardware it runs, storage wise.

So it doesn't matter really that it sees another controller. There are no performance drawbacks if you use a virtual SCSI controller on your SATA drives if that is what you mean.

The only exception to the rule that i can see would be if you want to run your host OS in a virtual machine by cloning it.

Even if VMware would support virtual sata controllers (which it does not) it still would have to be the exact same controller or the change would be just as big as using a IDE/SCSI/SAS controller in the guest.






--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

> The issue would be that if i choose SAS controller and then IDE hard

disk drive, VMware changes SAS in IDE controller, and creates hdd as a

default of parallel ATA.

That is not the full story ...

in the vmx-file you specify the type of SCSI-controller you want - choices are buslogic, lsilogic and the sas-controller

additionally every vmdk has a parameter which specifies if it is usesd as IDE, Buslogic or Lsilogic.

So you effectively you have full control

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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danIme
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, a kind of clone but not to restore to the host, to install and test same software.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

I'm a software developer as well. So your software is expected to work differently on SATA disks as on SAS or SCSI disks?

Then I'm not sure if your environment is a good candidate for virtualisation... but without knowing more it is hard to say.



--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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