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WALT75020111014
Contributor
Contributor

Adding Storage Drive for a VM...create VDMK Disk or add as iScsi Disk?

Hi,

I'm am at a crossroads. I was wondering if I should make a new hard drive to an existing Vitual machine using a VMDK disk or using iscsi to attach a new hard drive.

Which way is better? Which way would work better for backups or disaster recovery or block level replication?

I'm leaning to iscsi .... but please help a brother out ... I need some input.

TIA.

Walt

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dquintana
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hello Walt, for simplicity and portability i recommend you to create a vmdk disk. The performance is very similar and you have more benefits with vmdk.

Regards

---

Diego Quintana

User Moderator

vExpert.

Ing. Diego Quintana - VMware Communities Moderator - Co Founder & CEO at Wetcom Group - vEXPERT From 2010 to 2020- VCP, VSP, VTSP, VAC - Twitter: @daquintana - Blog: http://www.wetcom.com-blog & http://www.diegoquintana.net - Enjoy the vmware communities !!!

DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Since you are learning iSCSI I would try both. That way you see the benefits and shortcomings of each. There is no substitute for experience.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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WALT75020111014
Contributor
Contributor

Both doesn't work for me. I have looked at the difference as far as speed goes. Not much of a difference there.

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WALT75020111014
Contributor
Contributor

What are the advantages of VMDK?

The only one I really see is the snapshots. a VMDK can be snapped and iscsi cannot. Great SQL Stores / Mail Stores (Databases) but snaps are not much of any use for a file server.

Can you enlighten me on what else VMDK Hard Disk would do for me?

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

You either manage entirely within the vSphere environment or you have a hybrid approach. If you see advantages with iSCSI then that is the way you should go. As in most things there is no "best". Every environment will be different. We don't know yours and we don't know how you will manage it. The reasons for choosing one method over another will always depend. In the end you get to decide. The great thing about virtualization is that you can change to something else if circumstances change.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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binoche
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

for example, native multipathing, storage vmotion...,  maybe rdm vmdk is a better option?

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