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    Home London IT Operations Management IT Operations Management Discovery Data collected by Discovery Computer and server discovery VMware discovery Datastore Discovery

    Datastore Discovery

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    Datastore Discovery

    A datastore is a storage object for virtual machines that are hosted on an ESX server.

    A datastore is a collection of one or more physical disks, such as an iSCSI disk, and can be used by more than one ESX host. However, a physical disk can only connect to one datastore. Because ESX hosts can share datastores, it is easy to move virtual machine between hosts that have a common datastore.
    Note: From the perspective of a virtual machine attached to a datastore, storage is provided by a single disk.
    The advantages to connecting a datastore to multiple disks are:
    • The ability to mirror the disks for failover protection.
    • The ease of adding storage to the datastore.

    For information about the tables used by Discovery to store the data for physical disks and their relationship to datastores and ESX hosts, see ESX server discovery.

    In this example configuration, two ESX hosts share a common datastore that uses different types of storage.

    Figure 1. Datastore Discovery with different storage types
    Datastore Discovery

    Relationships

    ServiceNow provides tables that contain the relationships between an ESX host and its datastore and the specific disks to which the datastore is connected.

    ServiceNow Discovery establishes the relationships between a datastore, the disks attached to the datastore, and the ESX server that hosts the virtual machines using that datastore. From the perspective of the ESX host, iSCSI and fibre channel disks connected to the datastore are treated as physical disks. Discovery does not show the direct relationship of the storage disks to the ESX host.

    Note: Storage can be hosted on computers that are not discovered by Discovery. ESX hosts are discovered through vCenter, and storage is discovered separately through CIM. The system can only establish the relationship between the two when storage is discovered before ESX.
    Table 1. Datastore tables
    Table Description
    cmdb_ci_vcenter_datastore_disk Stores the relationship of the physical disk to the datastore.
    vcenter_datastore_hostmount Stores the relationship between the datastore and the ESX server to which it is connected.
    cmdb_ci_disk Contains the physical disks connected directly to the datastore. This table also contains a reference to the ESX host.
    cmdb_ci_fc_disk Contains the fibre channel disks in a storage area network (SAN) connected to the datastore. This table also contains a reference to the ESX host.
    cmdb_ci_iscsi_disk Contains the iSCSI disks in an IP network connected to the datastore. This table also contains a reference to the ESX host.
    Related concepts
    • Discovery for VMware vCenter
    • VMware virtual machines
    Related reference
    • ESX server discovery

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    Release version
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      Datastore Discovery

      • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
      • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
      • Share this page

      Datastore Discovery

      A datastore is a storage object for virtual machines that are hosted on an ESX server.

      A datastore is a collection of one or more physical disks, such as an iSCSI disk, and can be used by more than one ESX host. However, a physical disk can only connect to one datastore. Because ESX hosts can share datastores, it is easy to move virtual machine between hosts that have a common datastore.
      Note: From the perspective of a virtual machine attached to a datastore, storage is provided by a single disk.
      The advantages to connecting a datastore to multiple disks are:
      • The ability to mirror the disks for failover protection.
      • The ease of adding storage to the datastore.

      For information about the tables used by Discovery to store the data for physical disks and their relationship to datastores and ESX hosts, see ESX server discovery.

      In this example configuration, two ESX hosts share a common datastore that uses different types of storage.

      Figure 1. Datastore Discovery with different storage types
      Datastore Discovery

      Relationships

      ServiceNow provides tables that contain the relationships between an ESX host and its datastore and the specific disks to which the datastore is connected.

      ServiceNow Discovery establishes the relationships between a datastore, the disks attached to the datastore, and the ESX server that hosts the virtual machines using that datastore. From the perspective of the ESX host, iSCSI and fibre channel disks connected to the datastore are treated as physical disks. Discovery does not show the direct relationship of the storage disks to the ESX host.

      Note: Storage can be hosted on computers that are not discovered by Discovery. ESX hosts are discovered through vCenter, and storage is discovered separately through CIM. The system can only establish the relationship between the two when storage is discovered before ESX.
      Table 1. Datastore tables
      Table Description
      cmdb_ci_vcenter_datastore_disk Stores the relationship of the physical disk to the datastore.
      vcenter_datastore_hostmount Stores the relationship between the datastore and the ESX server to which it is connected.
      cmdb_ci_disk Contains the physical disks connected directly to the datastore. This table also contains a reference to the ESX host.
      cmdb_ci_fc_disk Contains the fibre channel disks in a storage area network (SAN) connected to the datastore. This table also contains a reference to the ESX host.
      cmdb_ci_iscsi_disk Contains the iSCSI disks in an IP network connected to the datastore. This table also contains a reference to the ESX host.
      Related concepts
      • Discovery for VMware vCenter
      • VMware virtual machines
      Related reference
      • ESX server discovery

      Tags:

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