IOS storage on ESX host

Just out of curiosity, where do most of the VMWare admins store the IOS files in relation to the ESX host?

I would prefer not to store my IOS files on the ESX host. Has anyone had success with using an NFS share to store their IOS files? If so any advice suggestions would be appreciated.

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dynamik

I think you've been hitting Cisco too hard lately. You mean ISOs, right?

What sort of setup do you have? I'd just leave them on the host if you're playing around with a single server. I have mine on NFS for convenience since I have multiple servers.

royal

When we set up ESX at work, I set up Services for Unix on Windows and created an NFS Share. You can take the passwd, place it on Windows, create a root account on Windows, and map the root account from passwd to the Windows root account and assign it permissions on the NFS Share. You'll then be able to mount the NFS share in ESX and store files there. At least that's the way I did it. I'm assuming there's easier ways to create NFS shares for VMware to mount and I ended up doing it the difficult way.

dynamik

I just use FreeNas. It's a breeze to setup.

You get the points for creativity though!

liven

liven wrote:

Just out of curiosity, where do most of the VMWare admins store the IOS files in relation to the ESX host?

I would prefer not to store my IOS files on the ESX host. Has anyone had success with using an NFS share to store their IOS files? If so any advice suggestions would be appreciated.

Yes trying to study for the CCNP (specifically BCMSN)....

I am just trying to keep as much clutter off of the ESX host as possible. Thanks for your input guys.

liven

royal wrote:

When we set up ESX at work, I set up Services for Unix on Windows and created an NFS Share. You can take the passwd, place it on Windows, create a root account on Windows, and map the root account from passwd to the Windows root account and assign it permissions on the NFS Share. You'll then be able to mount the NFS share in ESX and store files there. At least that's the way I did it. I'm assuming there's easier ways to create NFS shares for VMware to mount and I ended up doing it the difficult way.

Were you able to see the files via Virtual center when doing this?

THis is basically what i want to do, but I want to do it on a linux/unix box.

Thanks

astorrs

Like the others have said, export an NFS share on a *nix box (or use SFU if you have nothing but Windows) then point all your ESX hosts (and/or vCenter) to it.