You can store multiple virtual machines on the same VMFS volume. Each virtual machine, encapsulated in a set of files, occupies a separate single directory. For the operating system inside the virtual machine, VMFS preserves the internal file system semantics.

In addition, you can use the VMFS datastores to store other files, such as virtual machine templates and ISO images. VMFS supports file and block sizes that enable virtual machines to run data-intensive applications, including databases, ERP, and CRM, in virtual machines. See the

vSphere Storage

documentation.

You use the

vmkfstools

vCLI to create and manipulate virtual disks, file systems, logical volumes, and physical storage devices on an

host. You can use

vmkfstools

to create and manage a virtual machine file system on a physical partition of a disk and to manipulate files, such as virtual disks, stored on VMFS-3 and NFS. You can also use

vmkfstools

to set up and manage raw device mappings (RDMs).

The

vSphere Storage

documentation includes a complete reference to the

vmkfstools

command that you can use in the

. You can use most of the same options with the

vmkfstools

vCLI command. Specify one of the connection options listed in Connection Options for vCLI Host Management Commands in place of

<conn_options>

.

The following options supported by the

vmkfstools

command are not supported by the

vmkfstools

vCLI command.