ESX Configuration Guide

Types of Physical Storage

The ESX storage management process starts with storage space that your storage administrator preallocates on different storage systems.

ESX supports the following types of storage:

Local Storage

Local storage can be internal hard disks located inside your ESX host, or it can be external storage systems located outside and connected to the host directly through protocols such as SAS or SATA.

Local storage does not require a storage network to communicate with your host. You need is a cable connected to the storage unit and, when required, a compatible HBA in your host.

ESX supports a variety of internal or external local storage devices, including SCSI, IDE, SATA, USB, and SAS storage systems. Regardless of the type of storage you use, your host hides a physical storage layer from virtual machines.

NOTE You cannot use IDE/ATA drives to store virtual machines.

Local storage devices do not support sharing across multiple hosts. A datastore on a local storage device can be accessed by only one host.

Because the majority of local storage devices do not support multiple connections, you cannot use multiple paths to access local storage.

Networked Storage

Networked storage consists of external storage systems that your ESX host uses to store virtual machine files remotely. Typically, the host accesses these systems over a high-speed storage network.

Networked storage devices are shared. Datastores on networked storage devices can be accessed by multiple hosts concurrently. ESX supports the following networked storage technologies.

NOTE Accessing the same storage through different transport protocols, such as iSCSI and Fibre Channel, at the same time is not supported.