Add a VMDK Affinity Rule

Create a VMDK affinity rule to place and keep all virtual disks of a virtual machine on the same datastore within a datastore cluster.

Prerequisites

Procedure

1. Navigate to a virtual machine in the inventory.
2. On the Configure tab, expand Settings and click VM SDRS Rules.
3. Click the Add button.
   The Add SDRS rule dialog box opens.
4. From the Type drop-down menu, select VMDK affinity.
5. From the Datastore cluster drop-down menu, select the datastore cluster where you want to keep the virtual machine disks.
   A datastore cluster is visible in the list only if the virtual machine configuration file or at least one of the virtual hard disks is placed on a datastore within the datastore cluster.
6. (Optional) Deselect the Keep VMDKs together to create a rule that places and keeps the virtual hard disks on different datastores.
   If you leave the check box selected, the rule that you create is the same as the default Storage DRS rule that operates at the datastore cluster level.
   Deselecting the check box creates a Storage DRS rule that overrides the default VMDK affinity rule for the datastore cluster.
7. Click OK.

Results

An Intra-VM Affinity rule is created that keeps VMDKs together. That is, all virtual hard disks of the selected virtual machine are placed and kept together on the same datastore within the datastore cluster.