New Training: vSphere iSCSI & NFS Storage

In this 10-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Keith Barker describes and demonstrates how to configure iSCSI and NFS network accessible shared storage in a vSphere environment. Watch this new VMware training.

Watch the full course: VMware Certified Professional

This training includes:

• 10 videos

• 1.2 hours of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro to iSCSI and NFS Storage

• Storage Overview

• Adding a Local VMFS Datastore

• iSCSI Overview

• Distributed Switch for iSCSI

• VMkernel Adapters for iSCSI SAN

• iSCSI Adapter and Datastore Creation

• NFS Datastores

• Hands On Lab: iSCSI Datastore

• Lab Walkthrough

What is ISCSI and Why Would You Use It With VSphere?

Vsphere, or ESXi, is a type 1 hypervisor OS. It's a way to stretch a computer’s available resources so that businesses don't have unused resources laying around. This can help reduce TCO (total cost of ownership) while making maintenance and administration easier for IT staff. Hypervisors work by dividing computing resources between multiple, virtual OS installations.

Computers need some sort of data storage to be useful. Though host computers for virtual machines can have local storage that it can share between different VMs, it's common to utilize Vsphere, and virtual machines, with a SAN. This moves data storage off of the host computer and into the network.

Moving data storage onto the network causes other issues, though. This is where ISCSI plays a role. ISCSI is a network protocol for connecting and transporting data between two endpoints, in this case, the SAN and the virtual machine. ISCSI has benefits over other forms of network shared data storage like NFS or SMB volumes, though. An ISCSI drive can be mounted in a virtual machine in a way that makes that drive appear like a native drive to the VM and not a network share. The ISCSI protocol can also fully encrypt data during transport which makes it a great option for a data-sensitive business.