Is it technically practical to have vmware running partly in SAN and in NAS?

[mcdsweet98]

Reason being, if possible we want static data's like webpages etc to be stored in NAS and we would also want to leverage on our existing NAS. Due to the fuel hike, some companies want to cut down on spending as much as possible. We need to know whether VMWARE is rigid or flexible when it comes to this sort of request.

Would Appreciate any of your help on this matter. Thanks.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

As always this depends. You did not state the VMware Product you are using nor the type of NAS you are using or the type of VMs that will be running. But yes, a NAS and a SAN can be used together. If you are using VMware ESX, the only NAS devices currently supported as Datastores for VMs are iSCSI and NFS over TCP based NAS devices. If you have any other then you would need to use it as a fileshare for each individual VM and not as a VM data store.

A VM datastore is where the Virtual disks and configuration files Live.

Which VMware product are we discussing, and can you give us specifics about your NAS and perhaps your VMs? THis will help determine how to use the devices together.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

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Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization