esxi and FreeNas on same datastore

[mrjoli021]

I am installing ESX 6.5 on a 128GB USB drive.  I would like to also install FreeNas on the same local storage.  I am doing this to share my storage through FreeNas.  The issue is that I am not seeing the USB drive as avail storage on ESX.

How can I install FreeNas and ESX on the same VM?

[erikverbruggen · Accepted solution]

USB drives are not supported as backing disk for a datastore. That is the reason you are not seeing the USB drive.

However, there are some guides online on how to use a USB drive for a datastore, USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.5 | Virten.net

I do not know if this is also possible with a USB drive on which you have installed ESXi.

[Sreejesh_D]

Hi,

Can you please explain the scenario?

Where you trying to install ESXi? in a VM or Desktop/server? If its a VM, is it a workstation VM or VM on ESXi?