VMWare ISCSI

VMware server virtualization is another technology allowing customers to lower costs. VMware has been popular for many years in test/dev environments, and like iSCSI now enjoys a significant presence in modern data centers serving production applications.

VMware ESX 2.5x was the version responsible for the vast acceptance and deployment in corporate data centers, however this version required fiber channel HBAs and SAN storage to take advantage of the high availability features such as Vmotion. With the release of VMware ESX 3.x, iSCSI is now a fully supported protocol. iSCSI based storage arrays supported by VMware are available from leading storage providers offering a lower cost option to compliment fiber channel as a ‘tier 2’, or in many cases replace fiber channel all together.