VMware ESX
The Linux SCSI Target Wiki
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|---|---|
| VMware ESX Memory Management and Monitoring | |
| Developer(s) | VMware, Inc. |
| Stable release | 4.1 (build 260247) / July 13, 2010[1] |
| Platform | x86/x64-compatible |
| Type | Virtual machine monitor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | VMware ESX |
VMware ESX is an enterprise-level virtualization product offered by VMware, Inc. that is supported by the LIO. ESX is a component of VMware's larger offering, VMware Infrastructure, which adds management and reliability services to the core server product. ESX is being replaced by ESXi.
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ESX 4
ESX 4.0 has been tested with LinuxIO with virtual storage objects IBLOCK and FILEIO.
Using export of physical storage objects PSCSI works, too, given that the underlying Linux/SCSI LLD supports SPC-2 RESERVE/RELEASE and T10 WWN for ESX MPIO.
Persistent Reservations
ESX 4 does not use SPC-3 and above Persistent Reservations (PRs) for controlling I_T Nexus access to a LUN. Instead, ESX 4 uses the legacy SPC-2 RESERVE/RELEASE operations for writing metadata to a VMFS enabled LUN. Support for SPC-3 and above PRs currently is and likely will continue to be requiring VMware vSphere.
Multipath
ESX 4 does not use SPC-3 and above Asymmetric Logical Unit Assignments (ALUA) for multipath. Instead, ESX 4 uses the legacy SPC-2 MPIO using T10 world wide unique naming to determine multiple paths to the same LUN. Support for SPC-3 and above ALUA also currently is and likely will continue to be requiring VMware vSphere.
LUN provisioning
By default, ESX 4 uses LUN provisioning and calls SPC-2 RESERVE/RELEASE as new blocks are written to update its VMFS metadata. LUN Provisioning (where the VMFS metadata is setup during mkfs time) can also be enabled, see VMware ESX Configuration Guide, ESX 4.0 (EN-000106-00) Section "Thin Provisioning", pp.116-118.
Certification
LinuxIO has obtained "VMware Ready" certifications for VMware vSphere 4 with Netgear,[2][3] QNAP,[4][5] and Synology storage appliances.
ESX 3
VMware ESX 3 is currently not supported by LinuxIO. VMware ESX 3 clustering depends on the depreciated Task Management Function WARM_RESET, which is not implemented in LinuxIO.
ESXi
| Developer(s) | VMware, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 4.1 / July 13, 2010[1] |
| Platform | x64-compatible |
| Type | Virtual machine monitor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | VMware ESXi |
VMware ESXi is a smaller footprint version of ESX that does not include ESX's Service Console. It is available as a free download from VMware though certain features are disabled without the purchase of a vCenter license.
VMware ESXi was originally a compact version of VMware ESX that allowed for a smaller 32 MB disk footprint on the Host. With a simple configuration console for mostly network configuration and remote based VMware Infrastructure Client Interface, this allows for more resources to be dedicated to the Guest environments.
While VMware ESXi seems to have the same Initiator as VMware ESX, has not been extensively validated with the open-source version of LinuxIO.
VMware
VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is a provider of virtualization software.[6][7][8] The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Palo Alto, California. The Company is majority owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC).
VMware's desktop software runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. while VMware's enterprise software is hypervisors for servers, VMware vSphere, VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are bare-metal embedded hypervisors that run directly on server hardware without requiring an additional underlying operating system.
See also
- VMware vSphere, Red Hat KVM
- LinuxIO
- SCSI: Persistent Reservations (PRs), Asymmetric Logical Unit Assignment (ALUA), Error Recovery Level (ERL), vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
Notes
- ↑ a b "VMware vSphere 4.1 Release Notes—ESXi Edition". VMware, Inc..
- ↑ "NETGEAR ReadyNAS for Business Products Achieve VMware Ready™ Certifications". Netgear, Inc. April 2010.
- ↑ "LIO-Target iSCSI addon for NV+". Netgear ReadyNAS Community Forum. December 2009.
- ↑ "QNAP Announces iSCSI and NFS VMware® Ready Certification of its Enterprise-level TS-859 Pro iSCSI Turbo NAS". QNAP Systems, Inc. May 2010.
- ↑ "What iSCSI implementation is Qnap using?". QNAP NAS Community Forum. December 2009.
- ↑ "VMware leader in virtualization market".
- ↑ Lohr, Steve (2009-08-31). "VMware market share more than 80%". The New York Times.
- ↑ "VMware, Hyper-V virtualization leave others in the dust".
External links
- VMware Official website
- VMware ESX Wikipedia entry
- ESX Configuration Guide, EN-000106-00.
