What cluster file system is utilized by ESXi hosts for storing virtual machines?

The cluster file system utilized by ESXi hosts for storing virtual machines is VMFS, which stands for VMware File System. Designed specifically for VMware environments, VMFS allows multiple ESXi hosts to concurrently read and write to the same virtual disk files while managing file locking and preventing data corruption.

VMFS is optimized for virtual machine workloads, providing efficient space management and high performance for I/O operations. It supports large virtual disks and can handle file systems larger than traditional file systems, making it well-suited for enterprise data center environments where large amounts of virtual machine data need to be stored and accessed quickly.

Each VMFS volume appears as a traditional block device to the ESXi host, allowing it to store virtual machine files such as VMDK (virtual disk) and VMX (configuration) files. This capability plays a critical role in enabling features such as vMotion and High Availability (HA), as it facilitates shared access to these files across different hosts in a cluster.

Other file systems mentioned, such as SMB (which is more network-focused) and NFS (which is a protocol rather than a file system), serve different roles within infrastructure setups. SCSI refers to a set of standards for transferring data to and from storage devices, rather than