Datastores are logical containers, analogous to file systems, that hide specifics of physical storage and provide a uniform model for storing virtual machine files. Datastores can also be used for storing ISO images, virtual machine templates, and floppy images.
What to read next
Types of Datastores Understanding VMFS Datastores ESXi uses datastores. The datastores are logical containers that hide specifics of physical storage from virtual machines and provide a uniform model for storing the virtual machine files. The datastores that you deploy on block storage devices use the native vSphere Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) format. It is a special high-performance file system format that is optimized for storing virtual machines. Upgrading VMFS Datastores ESXi uses different approaches to VMFS5 and VMFS3 upgrades. Understanding Network File System Datastores ESXi uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol over TCP/IP to access a designated NFS volume that is located on a NAS server. The ESXi host can mount the volume and use it for its storage needs. vSphere supports versions 3 and 4.1 of the NFS protocol. Creating Datastores Managing Duplicate VMFS Datastores Increase VMFS Datastore Capacity Administrative Operations for Datastores Set Up Dynamic Disk Mirroring Collecting Diagnostic Information for ESXi Hosts on a Storage Device ESXi must be able to save diagnostic information to a preconfigured location for diagnostic and technical support purposes. Checking Metadata Consistency with VOMA Configuring VMFS Pointer Block Cache ESXi host, pointer blocks related to that file are stored in the pointer block cache. The size of the pointer block cache is a configurable parameter.
