Home > Storage > Unity XT > Virtualization, Cloud & Applications > Dell Unity: Virtualization Integration > VMware datastores
Traditionally, when provisioning a datastore, a LUN or file system is created first and then access is granted to an ESXi host. Then, the VMware administrator performs a rescan and builds a Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) on the LUN or mounts the NFS export.
Unisphere allows for creation of VMFS and NFS datastores that are optimized for VMware. Dell Unity simplifies datastore provisioning by automating the tasks that are normally performed by the VMware administrator. When a datastore is created and access is provided to an ESXi host, it is automatically rescanned and made available as a datastore in vSphere. These datastores can take advantage of the same data services that are available to LUNs and file systems, such as snapshots and replication.