vCenter Server provides storage filters to help you avoid storage device corruption or performance degradation that might be caused by an unsupported use of storage devices. These filters are available by default.

Table 1. Storage Filters
Filter Name Description
config.vpxd.filter.vmfsFilter

(VMFS Filter)

Filters out storage devices, or LUNs, that are already used by a VMFS datastore on any host managed by vCenter Server. The LUNs do not show up as candidates to be formatted with another VMFS datastore or to be used as an RDM.
config.vpxd.filter.rdmFilter

(RDM Filter)

Filters out LUNs that are already referenced by an RDM on any host managed by vCenter Server. The LUNs do not show up as candidates to be formatted with VMFS or to be used by a different RDM.

For your virtual machines to access the same LUN, the virtual machines must share the same RDM mapping file. For information about this type of configuration, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.

config.vpxd.filter.sameHostsAndTransportsFilter

(Same Hosts and Transports Filter)

Filters out LUNs ineligible for use as VMFS datastore extents because of host or storage type incompatibility. Prevents you from adding the following LUNs as extents:
  • LUNs not exposed to all hosts that share the original VMFS datastore.
  • LUNs that use a storage type different from the one the original VMFS datastore uses. For example, you cannot add a Fibre Channel extent to a VMFS datastore on a local storage device.
config.vpxd.filter.hostRescanFilter

(Host Rescan Filter)

Automatically rescans and updates VMFS datastores after you perform datastore management operations. The filter helps provide a consistent view of all VMFS datastores on all hosts managed by vCenter Server.
Note: If you present a new LUN to a host or a cluster, the hosts automatically perform a rescan no matter whether you have the Host Rescan Filter on or off.