VMFS version numbers

[ehinkle]

What versions of ESX creates each VMFS version?

I am preparing for an upgrade and was doing some testing of ESX. i nstalled a new esx4 server and created a vmfs partition and it shows up as version 3.33. I then install an esx 3.5U2 (build 64607) and it created a vmfs partition of 3.31. Looking at my production servers they show up as VMFS 3.21. I wanted my test environment to have VMFS version 3.21 since that is what my production servers have but I am not sure how the vmfs 3.21 partition was created.

In production we are running esx 3.5U3 (build 110268) which I would have figured would have had a later version than 3.5U2. The only thing I can figure is that the 3.21 was created because we had initially upgraded from VMFS 2 to VMFS3. Does anyone know that for sure? Also want to make sure this does not pose any problems with my upgrade because I see someone else had posted a problem with a blade seeing a 3.21 partition. Also will that impact the features 4 has or will that upgrade my vmfs partition?

[vmroyale]

Hello.

Check out kb article 1005325.

Good Luck!

[RParker]

What versions of ESX creates each VMFS version?

3.21 came out before ESX 3.03. 3.31 is the current version.

upgraded from VMFS 2 to VMFS3. Does anyone know that for sure?

Yes, we are sure...

But there are NO differences you that would affect anything you do, the version is ancillary. 3.31 is a bug fix basically, all other functionality is the same.

[Sreejesh_D]

Here's an useful community thread on VMFS3 versions. http://communities.vmware.com/message/1071323

As per the comment in the thread :

+For tracking purposes, any minor tweaks to on-disk structures

(typically due to extra fields that get added to existing structures)

necessitated for performance reasons/bug fixes, VMFS driver bumps up

the minor version number. This doesn't affect end users in any visible

manner. it is thus a purely internal tracking milestone of sorts. The

VMFS3 driver that ships with esx3* can still understand and would be

able to access the volumes that were created by esx40+

Regards,

Sreejesh