In this chapter, we have covered the basics of virtual storage in a vSphere environment and become aware of the two major file systems being used in the VMware environment. We know that VMFS is VMware's proprietary cluster-aware file system for SCSI-based storage. Along with NAS systems or file servers, we can also use NFS shares to store virtual machines and other files, such as ISO files and templates.

Now that we are well versed with the data handling techniques in a virtual environment, we know how to manage backing up and restoring data, and use Changed Block Tracking (CBT) to use storage more efficiently. For backing up virtual machines, we can use vSphere Data Protection (VDP), which is available with no additional cost in all commercial vSphere editions, or other third-party products using the vSphere Storage API for Data Protection (VADP). Using this appliance, we can easily create and restore backups using vSphere Web Client.

In the next chapter, we will be learning about...