VMware 5.1 Disk Size

[ckeith7777]

VM Guru’s,

One of my VM guests will need a hard drive around 5 TB in size.  The HD will host large imaging files.  What is the best (recommended) way to accomplish this task? and Why? 

1) iSCSI through the guest VM to the LUN
2) RDM
3) Or is there another way?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

You actually named the possible option which are currently available. Either use in-guest iSCSI or physical RDMs. Which method you select is up to you. Personally I'd probably choose the RDM option to remove complexity from the guest OS and benefit from e.g. the ESXi host's multi-pathing capabilities.

André

[ckeith7777]

Thanks for the input.  RDM it is.

[rickardnobel]

ckeith7777 wrote:

3) Or is there another way?

Just for a possible third solotion, you could create several VMDKs and use some inside-the-guest-OS disk spanning to create a large disk.

However, I totally agree with a.p. that the best way is to use a physical RDM.