Specifications

Administration Guide
246 VMware, Inc.
machines!in!nonpersistent,!undoable,!or!append!disk!modes.!For!information!on!disk!
modes,!see!“Creating!a!New!Virtual!Machine”!on!page 39.
ESX!Server!2.5!supports!two!types!of!file!systems:!VMFS!version!1!(VMFS‐1)!or!VMFS!
version!2!(VMFS‐2).!VMFS‐1!is!the!same!VMFS!shipped!with!1.x!versions!
of!ESX!Server.!
The!VMFS‐2!file!system!contains!the!following!features!that!are!not!available!with!
VMFS‐1:
! Ability!to!span!multiple!VMFS‐2!partitions!on!the!same!or!different!SCSI!disks.
! Ability!for!multiple!ESX!Servers!(and!the!virtual!machines!on!these!servers)!to!
access!files!on!a!VMFS‐2!volume!concurrently!(non‐clustering!setup).
VMware!ESX!Server!2.5!includes!an!automatic!per‐file!locking!mechanism!that!
allows!these!concurrent!accesses!without!file!system!corruption.
! Larger!file!system!volumes!and!larger!files!on!the!VMFS!volumes.
! Raw!disks!can!be!mapped!as!VMFS!files.
A!server’s!VMFS!volumes!are!mounted!automatically!by !the!service!console,!as!soon!as!
the!storage!adapter!drivers!are!loaded,!and!appear!in!the!/vmfs!directory.!
The!vmkfstools!command!provides!additional!functions!that!are!useful!to!create!files!
of!a!particular!size!and!
to!import!files!from!and!export!files!to!the!service!console’s!file!
system.!In!addition,!vmkfstools!is!designed!to!work!with!large!files,!overcoming!the!
2GB!limit!of!some!standard!file!utilities.
Viewing and Manipulating Files in the /vmfs Directory
You!can!view!and!manipulate!files!under!/vmfs!in!these!mounted!VMFS!volumes!with!
file!commands!such!as!ls!and!cp.!Mounted!VMFS!volumes!might!appear!similar!to!
other!file!system!such!as!ext3,!but!VMFS!is!primarily!intended!to!store!large!files!such!
as!disk!images.!The!service!console!
(which!is!based!on!a!Linux!2.4!kernel)!does!not!
support!files!greater!than!2GB.
Use!ftp,!scp,!and!cp!for!copying!files!to!and!from!a!VMFS!volume,!as!long!as!the!host!
file!system!supports!these!large!files.!nfs!is!known!to!run!into!this!limitation,!while!
ftp,
!scp,!and!cp!are!not!affected!by!it.!
NOTE Unlike!VMFS‐1,!VMFS‐2!is!not!backwardly!compatible!with!previously!released!(1.x)!
versions!of!ESX!Server.