VMware Arena

Difference Between VMFS 3 and VMFS 5

This post explains you the major difference between VMFS 3 and VMFS 5. VMFS 5 is available as part of vSphere 5. VMFS 5 is introduced with lot of performance enhancements. Newly installed ESXi 5 will be formatted with VMFS 5 version but if you have upgraded the ESX 4 or ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5, then datastore version will be VMFS 3 only. You will able to upgrade the VMFS 3 to VMFS 5 via vSphere client once ESXi upgrade is Complete. This posts tells you some major differences between VMFS 3 and VMFS 5
Capability
VMFS 3
VMFS 5
Maximum single Extend size
2 TB  less 512 bytes
64 TB
Partition Style
MBR (Master Boot Record) style
GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Available Block Size
1 MB/2MB/4MB/8MB
 only 1 MB
Maximum size of RDM in
Virtual Compatibiltiy
2 TB  less 512 bytes
2 TB  less 512 bytes
Maximum size of RDM in
Phsical Compatibiltiy
2 TB  less 512 bytes
64 TB
Supported Hosts versions
ESX/ESX 3.X, 4.X & 5.x
Only ESXi 5 is supported
Spanned Volume size
64 TB (32 extends with max
size of extent is 2 TB)
64 TB (32 extends with
any size combination)
Upgrade path
VMFS 3 to VMFS 5
Latest Version. NO upgarde
 available yet.
File Limit
30,000
100,000
Sub-Block size
64 KB
8 KB
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