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massimiliano.rizzi
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Large VMDK on a VMFS volume or RDM for file serving ?

Post by massimiliano.rizzi »

Hello experts,

as part of a Windows file server Consolidation project for an existing Veeam B&R customer, we will soon have to consolidate three old physical Windows file servers into a new single Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtual Machine running on an existing VMware vSphere 5.5 Cluster.

The new file server storage volume will be stored on an EMC CLARiiON AX4-5F storage array and will be around 1 TB.

Based on your experience, from a VMware and Veeam B&R reliability perspective would you recommend using a large VMDK on a dedicated VMFS volume or an RDM using virtual compatibility mode ?

Any suggestions and thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,

Massimiliano
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Re: Large VMDK on a VMFS volume or RDM for file serving ?

Post by Gostev »

VMDK. Absolutely no reason to go with anything else.
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Large VMDK on a VMFS volume or RDM for file serving ?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

There is no performance difference between RDMs and VMDKs these days, so in order to have all benefits of virtualization you should definitely go with VMDKs.
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