possible to share ESXI's local volume with other ESXi hosts?

[kindzma]

Adding a host to an existing ESXi cluster. The host has about 27TB in an unused local RAID5 volume.

Is it possible to initialize it as a VMFS volume and share it with other hosts in the cluster?

Thanks!

P.S. Fairly new to VMware administration and configuration.

[DavoudTeimouri · Accepted solution]

You can not share local volume by standard solutions.

But you can remove logical volume and share it as vSAN.

[memaad · Accepted solution]

Here are few option to share or mount this storage space on other hosts

1. Build VM as NFS server and storage to it , then mount share from it on other esxi host

2. Use virtual storage appliance to create iscsi based storage and then you can provision iscsi luns for other ESXi host, with right networking setup

[kindzma]

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@memaad wrote:

Here are few option to share or mount this storage space on other hosts

1. Build VM as NFS server and storage to it , then mount share from it on other esxi host

2. Use virtual storage appliance to create iscsi based storage and then you can provision iscsi luns for other ESXi host, with right networking setup

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Nice, thank you. Is Item 2 the same as the vSAN Davoud referred to? (Apologies again - fairly familiar with SANs and other types of storage - yet totally new to vSANs.)

Re: iSCSI-based "virtual storage appliance": would you be able to refer me to an article describing how to do it?

Thanks again!

[kindzma]

After reading up on it a little bit, seems that vSAN is the way to go - i.e. the recommended and "best practice" solution to utilize unused local storage on ESXi hosts. Does that sound right?

(Setting up an NFS volume or an iSCSI target via an "appliance" VM should work - yet not the VMware "best practice" unless vSAN is unavailable for some reason?)

[memaad]

If this is for production use, note that VSAN has strict rule for hardware compatibility. Make sure every component that you use in servers and its drivers and firmware are compatible, else you might have performance problem with unstable cluster.

[IRIX201110141 · Accepted solution]

Take a look to vSAN licensing and its requirements first befor wasting time.

I suggest to place a VM/Appliance and export the capacity as NFS/iSCSI. But think about when you need to reboot this VM or the Host.

Regards,
Joerg

[kindzma]

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Take a look to vSAN licensing and its requirements first befor wasting time.

I see what you mean... 🤔😊

• Considerations about the vSAN License or Subscription
• VMware vSAN & VMware vSAN+ Licensing, pricing and packaging (PDF)

(The 14-page PDF above supposedly with "pricing" - has no actual prices.... 🤔)

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I suggest to place a VM/Appliance and export the capacity as NFS/iSCSI. But think about when you need to reboot this VM or the Host.

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Do you have a preference for one or the other (NFS vs. iSCSI) if it'll only be shared among 3-4 ESXi hosts?

Favorite such VM/appliance? (Or is it more about whatever I am familiar with?)

Thanks!