A vVol datastore is neither a file system nor a volume (LUN) per se, but an abstraction that emulates a file system to (a) represent VMs provisioned through it and (b) manage VM space allocation. It can be viewed as a collection of references to vVols.
vVol datastores are managed similarly to conventional datastores. For example, the Web Client file browser and an ESXi SSH session can display a vVol datastore’s contents.
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vSphere UI vVol Datastore View
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ESXi CLI view of vVol Datastore Content
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:~] cd /vmfs/volumes/
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:/vmfs/volumes] cd sn1-m20r2-c05-36-vVols-DS/
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:/vmfs/volumes/vvol:db046da6c3633fd8-b4df272b7c417bdf] pwd
/vmfs/volumes/sn1-m20r2-c05-36-vVols-DS
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:/vmfs/volumes/vvol:db046da6c3633fd8-b4df272b7c417bdf] ls
AC-3-vVols-VM-1 rfc4122.3408aa5d-da4d-4b34-84ac-54ac220ca40a rfc4122.a46478bc-300d-459e-9b68-fa6acb59c01c vVols-m20-VM-01 vvol-w2k16-no-cbt-c-2
AC-3-vVols-VM-2 rfc4122.7255934c-0a2e-479b-b231-cef40673ff1b rfc4122.ba344b42-276c-4ad7-8be1-3b8a65a52846 vVols-m20-VM-02
rfc4122.1f972b33-12c9-4016-8192-b64187e49249 rfc4122.7384aa04-04c4-4fc5-9f31-8654d77be7e3 rfc4122.edfc856c-7de1-4e70-abfe-539e5cec1631 vvol-w2k16-light-c-1
rfc4122.24f0ffad-f394-4ea4-ad2c-47f5a11834d0 rfc4122.8a49b449-83a6-492f-ae23-79a800eb5067 vCLS (1) vvol-w2k16-light-c-2
rfc4122.31123240-6a5d-4ead-a1e8-b5418ab72a3e rfc4122.97815229-bbef-4c87-b69b-576fb55a780c vVols-b05-VM-02 vvol-w2k16-no-cbt-c-1
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:/vmfs/volumes/vvol:db046da6c3633fd8-b4df272b7c417bdf] cd vVols-m20-VM-01/
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:/vmfs/volumes/vvol:db046da6c3633fd8-b4df272b7c417bdf/rfc4122.3408aa5d-da4d-4b34-84ac-54ac220ca40a] pwd
/vmfs/volumes/sn1-m20r2-c05-36-vVols-DS/vVols-m20-VM-01
[root@ac-esxi-a-16:/vmfs/volumes/vvol:db046da6c3633fd8-b4df272b7c417bdf/rfc4122.3408aa5d-da4d-4b34-84ac-54ac220ca40a] ls
vVols-m20-VM-01-000001.vmdk vVols-m20-VM-01.vmdk vmware-2.log
vVols-m20-VM-01-321c4c5a.hlog vVols-m20-VM-01.vmsd vmware-3.log
vVols-m20-VM-01-3549e0a8.vswp vVols-m20-VM-01.vmx vmware-4.log
vVols-m20-VM-01-3549e0a8.vswp.lck vVols-m20-VM-01.vmx.lck vmware-5.log
vVols-m20-VM-01-Snapshot2.vmsn vVols-m20-VM-01.vmxf vmware.log
vVols-m20-VM-01-aux.xml vVols-m20-VM-01.vmx~ vmx-vVols-m20-VM-01-844ff34dc6a3e333b8e343784b3c65efa2adffa1-2.vswp
vVols-m20-VM-01.nvram vmware-1.log
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vVols replace LUN-based datastores formatted with VMFS. There is no file system on a vVol datastore, nor are vVol-based virtual disks encapsulated in files. The datastore concept does not disappear entirely, however. VMs must be provisioned somewhere. This provisioning target is a storage container referred to as the vVol Datastore.