Separate Dedicated datastore for snapshots

[tony_mcphail]

ESXi 4.0 / EMC CX4-120 SAN

We have a couple  of VM guests that have separate Datastore's for their C: and 😧 drives.

C: has 1 mg  block size and 😧 has 2 mg block size.

The configuration  files are currently on the C: Datastore.

So it is not  possible to run a snapshot because of the different block size.

😧 Datastore only  has 5 GB of free space so not possible to move the configuration files to that  DS.

So my  question;

Is it  acceptable to create a separate Datastore (with 2mg block size) and place all (I  have 3 servers that have this problem) configuration files on this DS. This  would provide enough space to run the snapshots as part of the backup process,  they are only required for a couple of hours?

[a_p_]

Moving the base folder is one option, another option is to set a workingDir for the VM's in question. see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002929

André

[idle-jam]

have a look at this: http://blog.vmpros.nl/2009/05/14/vmware-creating-snapshots-in-a-different-location-than-default-virt...

[tony_mcphail]

My question is really should you create a separate dedicated datastore, would this be best practice? Is this the best way to deal with this challenge?

[a_p_]

Personally I keep the VM's files on one datastore whenever possible. What I would probably do in your case, is to grow the 2MB datastore and migrate all the VM's files to the folder of the current 😧 drive. However, I don't know the reason why you separated the drives (tiering!?).

André

[tony_mcphail]

Separate datastores for performance tiering.

I can rebuild the datastore to make it larger, just trying to find a easy way out. I have 3 servers so this will take some effort, build the new LUN's, vMotion the vmdk, build the next one, etc.

Thanks for your help. Looks like expanding the datastore is the best approach.