Comparison between VMFS3 & VMFS5

Comparison between VMFS3 & VMFS5

There are so many people who want to know what is this VMFS3 And VMFS5. First of All i will let you know what is this. So come on.

VMware VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) is VMware, Inc.'s cluster file system. It is used by VMware ESX/ ESXi Server.

•             VMFS version 3 is used by ESX Server v3.x and vSphere (4.x). Beginning from ESX 3 and VMFS3, virtual machine configuration files are stored in the VMFS partition by default. -- Officially named "VMware Virtual Machine File System"

•             VMFS version 5 is used by ESXi Server v5.x and vSphere (5.x). It introduced unified 1MB block-size (upgraded VMFS5 volumes will however inherit the VMFS3 block size value), and larger LUN-sizes than 2TB, but the maximum VMDK-file size remain at 2TB (minus 512 bytes, irrespective of the file‐system block size), same as VMFS3. Older versions of ESX/ESXi cannot read or write VMFS5 volumes. Beginning from ESXi 5.0 and VMFS5, virtual machine configuration files are stored in the VMFS5 partition by default.

VMFS3	VMFS5
Single Largest extent of 2TB less 512bytes	Single largest extent of 64TB
Uses MSDOS partition table	Uses GPT partition table
Supports 64TB Spanned Volume (32 extents x 2TB)	Supports 64TB Spanned Volume (32 extents with any size combination)
Different block size based on the datastore size (1MB/2MB/4MB/8MB)	Unified 1MB Block Size
Max size of RDM in virtual compatibility mode would be 2TB less 512bytes	Max size of RDM in virtual compatibility mode would be 2TB less 512bytes.
Max size of RDM in physical compatibility mode would be 2TB less 512bytes.	Max size of RDM in physical compatibility mode would be 64TB.