can vmware server machine files be stored on network

[bookouri]

Can anybody tell me if its possible to store a virtual machine on the network rather than on a local drive and still run it using vmware server?

thanks

 

[TheLad]

If you are using VMWare Server on Windows, I see no reason why it would not work, but I don't see why you would want to try this configuration as I assume the performance would be unbearable.

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[bookouri]

i have some machines that dont require a lot of resources like an anti-virus server and a wsus server that might be convenient to store on the network. But mainly im just trying to figure out if i can make some use of the new storage server disk space. Just trying to figure out what i can and cant really do with vmware i guess..

 

[TheLad]

You can only try it and see how it performs. VMWare does support NAS and iSCSI devices with ESX, you may want to look at a dedicated NIC for these servers if you do go down this route though.

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[biglebowski]

I've tried two network methods NFS via windows services for unix which was pretty poor performance wise and openfiler iscsi which is very good. Both are free which makes them more appealing but if server supports iscsi definately go down the openfiler route.

When I was born I was so suprised I didn't talk for 18 months

 

[bookouri]

I just installed VMWare Server 2.0 and there are settings to create a "datastore" and that datastore can be stored on a CIFS location. If I understand it CIFS is something like SAMBA but I cant find any documentation that tells how to create/use a CIFS location on a windows server.

Has anybody tried creating remote datastores to use with VMWare Server 2.0?

 

[archwayguy]

Yes, though TheLad is right. Transferring the image when connecting from client to server is going to be almost impossible.