Virtual disks explained...

Similar Questions

• Reference Dell HDS - recommended VMware virtual disk - drives provided - basic and dynamic thin and thick.

  Can someone point me to the literature on best practices for guest disc formats?

  I know all the Compellent thin-provisions. However, in VMware 5.5, when you set up a virtual disk in the comments you have several choices:

  • Lazy provisioned to zero thickness
  • Eager provisioned to zero thickness
  • Provision of thin

  And then, at the level of the OS, you have the choice of:

  • Base
  • Dynamics

  I would like a pointer to the technical document explaining the advantages/disadvantages of each choice and recommended best practices.

  Kind regards

  Kath

  I would like to either thin or thick lazy to zero.  The two will take the same amount of data on the HDS.  The main decision is where you want to manage your storage space?  If dilute you on thin you need to make sure that you make no provision in both places.  If you have thick lazy to zero, then you can only on commissioning on one side.

  Say that I always thin on thin.  Recovery of the space at the level of the virtual computer is not officially supported immediately, but maybe someday.

  In a virtualized environment, always keep it simple.  There is no dynamic performance with virtualization

• The initialization of the swap file to virtual disk periodically (40% of the time +/-) fails to start Windows

  Greetings-

  For the past year or so I put my Windows 7 32-bit, 8 GB RAM system to initialize the page automatically on a virtual disk file (in order to reduce the physical disk reads/writes and to speed up the access to the page files).

  Here's how I set up: I installed Dataram Ramdisk and configured to use memory beyond 4 GB (which, as everyone here knows, 32-bit Windows can not otherwise use) as the ramdisk.  In setting up manually formatted the 4 GB unallocated space virtual drive as an NTFS volume and it gave the letter a: (what else!). Then I got the software save an image file of the ramdisk formatted my hard drive F:. Additional configuration of the software wants to initialize the virtual disk to start and immediately copy the image file to the virtual disk, thus creating a 4 GB NTFS formatted volume a:. (Incidentally, I also use the virtual disk to the cache of the browser and the print spooler). The theory here is flawless. But to make it work in practice, the virtual disk must be initialized and the image file copied into ramdisk (making it a formatted disk R :) front Windows initializes the pagefile.

  It runs about 60% of the time, but for the remaining 40 percent Windows gives an error message indicating that Windows has created the page file in a temporary location (it's always the C: drive, the pagefile in general where default.). The only reasonable explanation I see why it fails is that, for nearly 40% of my computer boots window wants to initialize the page file before the ramdisk is ready to receive. What I don't understand is why that happens.

  This happen to my main question: is it possible to control the Windows boot sequence so that the ramdisk is initialized and the filename of the image copied to him on a basis consistent before Windows wants to initialize the page file? Operationally, I guess it boils down to whether it is possible, during each startup sequence, to delay initialization of the page files or to move the virtual boot record earlier in the sequence. If so, how to do that? If not, can someone explain why the order of the respective boots usually works, but does not reach a good amount as well?

  Ideas on this would be appreciated.

  RAS43

  Create a small paging file to 20 MB on the boot volume (the partition where the Windows files are installed) this way the session manager will be able to start the Windows session and create additional paging files without complaining.  You can have more than one paging on several disks, Windows will favour the less busy the disk paging file.

  John

• Virtual disk strange behaviour - please help

  Hi all

  I wonder if anyone can help. I started to experience a strange problem on one of my VM today.  I have a virtual machine running freenas.  The storage drives the actions of free storage to sit on are physical disks connected directly to the virtual machine and run normally, because of the way the works of freenas real HDD can be small enough and for the virtual machine, it's a prealloue virtual disk is 16 GB in size.  It is the only virtual machine sitting on a physical hard drive 256 GB. Today, I noticed a problem that the file for the virtual machine has become 240 GB in size, is probably not a normal behavior for a 16 GB VM.

  I checked snapshots which he had two auto protect snapshots which I deleted and disabled auto protect. This was reported to the size of the folder up to 182 GB.

  On the use of exploerer to view the folder it seems to be a large number of files, as shown below. Can someone explain if it should be there?  Also, how else remove them safely.

  Thanks in advance

  Thanks for the offer, but after a lot of interference and a virtual machine rebuild I managed to solve the problem.

  The solution was to set the 2 drives physical independent mode with persistent active. for some reason unknown to me this seems to prevent the creation of multiple disk files, it seems workstation creates them even when there are no snapshots.

  Time will tell us but seems to have solved the problems. Fingers crossed

  Thanks for all the help guys.

• Dell virtual disk are larger. You want to increase the size of the data store.

  Hello

  I started the implementation of a server ESXi 5.5 Update 1 this week. I didn't know Dell shipped the server with two virtual disks instead of one. I realized this _apres_ that I had already created the data store and setup a few virtual machines to the breast. I called Dell who sent specific instructions to increase the removal of the second (empty) virtual disk and add it to the main. In the end, I increased the single VD from 2 TB to 3 TB and I want to give the remaining space in my store of data.

  I tried to follow the article here that explains how to do this via the CLI.

  Well, he did not altogether. Fortunately, I was able to recover my datastore my setting start and end sectors to their original numbers. But I'm still left with this almost 1 TB of space that I can not attribute to the data store. After that I reread storage adapters in the client, the new Dell disk size resulted under measurement devices. Click on "increase...". ", generates the following error which led me on the way to the CLI method:

  Call "HostDatastoreSystem.QueryAvailableDisksForVmfs" to object "ha-datastoresystem" on ESXi '[myservername]' failed.

  I will paste my notes that I took everything by jobs. Things have exploded the rails when I put 4 partition size to the largest size. Any help, please?

  ---

  I use that as a guide:

  http://KB.VMware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC & docType = kc & docTypeID = DT_KB_1_1 & externalId = 2002461

  
  

  1 use start hardware device management tools to increase the capacity of additional disk to the device. For more information, commit your hardware provider.

  This has been done. The new size of the virtual disk is 2791,88 GB (TB 2,79188)

  
  

  2. open a console to the ESXi host.

  Pretty simple.

  
  

  3. get the DeviceID for the data store to change.

  ~ # vmkfstools Pei "/ vmfs/volumes/datastore1 / '.

  System file VMFS-5, 60 extending on 1 partition.

  File system label (if applicable): datastore1

  Mode: public

  Capacity 1971926859776 (blocks of files 1880576 * 1048576), 1042688245760 (994385 blocks) prevail, max size of the 69201586814976 file

  UUID: 534e5121 - 4450-19dc-f8bc1238e18a 260d

  Partitions split (on 'lvm'):

  NAA.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a:4

  
  

  A couple of things to note:

  a. the device for Datastore1 ID is: naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a

  b. the number of Partition on the disk is: 4 ' [...]: 4 "»

  c. the prefix, "naa," means "Network address authority" the number immediately after is a single logical unit number.

  4. Enter the amount of disk space available on the data store.

  ~ # df h

  Size of filesystem used available use % mounted on

  VMFS-5 1. 8T 865.4 G 971,1 G 47% / vmfs/volumes/datastore1

  
  

  5 team of the device identifier, to identify the existing partitions on the device by using the partedUtil command.

  ~ # partedUtil get ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a '.

  364456 255 63 5854986240

  1 63 80324 222 0

  2 80325 8466884 6 0

  3 8466885 13709764 252 0

  4 13711360 3865468766 251 0

  ~ #

  
  

  According to the table in article KB

  4 13711360 3865468766 251 0 - primary #4, type 251 = 0xFB = VMFS, 13711360-3865468766 areas

  | |        |          |   |

  | |        |          |   \---attribut

  | |        |          \---type

  | |        \---se finishing sector

  | \---a starting from sector

  partition \---Numero

  
  

  Also note how the number of section start the old end sector number is + 1.

  
  

  6 identify the partitions that need to be resized and the size of the space to use.

  We want to resize partition 4. I don't really understand the last part of this sentence, however. Read more.

  
  

  7 the number of sector end you want for the target data store VMFS partitions. To use all out at the end of the disc space, remove 1 of the size of the disk in the areas as described in step 5 in order to get the last usable area.

  ESXi 5.x has a command to do this:

  ~ # partedUtil getUsableSectors "/ vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a".

  1 5854986239

  This means that we want 4 Partition of "naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a" to be:

  13711360 - 5854986239 (i.e. the end of the disc)

  
  

  8 resize the partition containing the target VMFS Datastore using the command partedUtil, specifying the original existing partition and the desired end sector:

  Using the above information, our command is:

  resize # partedUtil ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a ' 4 13711360 5854986239

  
  

  9 step 8, the partedUtil command can report the warning:

  He did not. Displacement.

  
  

  10. the tables of partitions have been adjusted, but the VMFS data within the partition store is always the same size. Now there is an empty space in the partition where the VMFS data store can be grown.

  
  

  11 launch this v vmkfstools command to perform a refresh for VMFS volumes.

  Fact.

  
  

  12 reach the VMFS Datastore in the new space using the command - growfs vmkfstools, specifying the partition containing the VMFS Datastore target twice.

  vmkfstools - growfs ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a:4 ' ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a:4 '.

  
  

  It did not work. I got an error:

  / vmfs/volumes # vmkfstools - growfs ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a:4 ' /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d «»

  23001ad809071096d28a:4 ".

  Cannot get device head way /dev/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a:4 information

  
  

  Also the partition was very different to what I asked:

  ~ # partedUtil get ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a '.

  364456 255 63 5854986240

  1 63 80324 222 0

  2 80325 8466884 6 0

  3 8466885 13709764 252 0

  4 13711360 1560018942 251 0

  
  

  I fixed it by running these commands:

  ~ # partedUtil resize ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a ' 4 13711360 3865468766

  ~ # vmkfstools v

  ~ # partedUtil get ' / vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6c81f660ef0d23001ad809071096d28a '.

  364456 255 63 5854986240

  1 63 80324 222 0

  2 80325 8466884 6 0

  3 8466885 13709764 252 0

  4 13711360 3865468766 251 0

  Update:

  Since it was such a new machine, not in active production, we have safeguarded the VMs management off the ESXi host. Then flattened the virtual disk, recreated, and then created a store of data with the right size. (TPG this time, naturally.) We put the management of virtual machines on the data store. For Windows virtual machines, we have restored the using AppAssure. Everything is ok now.

  Need to add a new item to the list of punch: check what Dell has done the configuration of the virtual disks. :-)

• Cannot create a virtual disk existing; problem with files hard?

  Yes... This is a recurring problem since mid-December, and we finally decided to rebuild our vCenter on another host server.  I went and did the things of the new Virtual Machine and has "custom", so that I can browse and recover files hard and * _1.vmdk of our SAN for discs.

  Now, this large all worked Friday.  I just today... and it doesn't work.  D: drive (* _1.vmdk) disappeared, and I can't either remote on the server.  I can't vSphere, nothing!

  Then... we rebuild, changing the name of the server that we just built _old after stopping.

  When I go to recover files hard again, they are changed...?  I can't explain it!  I've attached a screenshot of what I take everything.

  Now... there at - it a way to solve this problem?  And if not, is it possible to find the information that was in these folders to manage our environment?
  
  Help?

  What you're saying gives me a really bad feeling.

  Sorry about that, I really want to tell you something more encouraging, but...

  Assuming that the snapshot you posted shows the old vCenter server folder, you can see that there are no configuration (.vmx) file more. I can tell you with certainty if the virtual machine has been removed (you can check the tasks and events) or if for example a backup application attempted to do his work but because of the virtual disks had reused problem!

  If you still want to use the existing virtual disks, you must move them to the folder of the new virtual machine in order to avoid any confusion.

  André

• The passage of the virtual disks to a different guest. ?

  I'll do my best to explain.

  I use ESXi (version 4.1)

  I have a single SATA drive, it has a large store of data

  I have a few vm on the host

  Is there a way to 'disconnect' some discs assigned to say, "user" guest123 and attach them to 'guestXYZ '?

  I'm migrating to Citrix XENserver, so my terminolgoy is a little off.  I know with XENserver, I can "detach" a disc and "linking" to a diff/guest VM.

  I was wondering if this can be done in ESXi as well (the virtual machine is stored in the data store, not with the virtual machine, if it makes no sense)

  To detach the disk you right-click, select the parameter to be modified and then remove the HD.   When you do so you will have two options - 1) for the disc 2) remove the drive and remove files. Of course, you choose option 1.

  On the other virtual machine, add a virtual disk and on the Hardware Wizard, you will be able to choose an existing drive.

  It might be useful to move the files to disk once you detach otherwise your 2nd VM will end with disk files in the folder for the 1st VM.

  Dave
  VMware communities user moderator

  ESXi Essentials free training / eBook offer

  Now available - VMware ESXi: planning, implementation, and security

  Also available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

• Additional virtual disk space not usable in Windows

  I resized a virtual disk of virtual machines by changing properties and then used a live CD partitioning tool to resize the partition.  Inside windows disk manager, it shows that the additional disk space as if the size of the Windows partition has been increased with success.  However, when I look at the properties of the hard drive in Windows, the extra size does NOT appear and it is not usable or accessible to the file system.  Any ideas what went wrong and how to fix it?

  Thank you

  I had exactly this before strange point of view and could not explain it. Seemed rather strange that the operating system will appear to display the disk space as allocted but the extra space was not available (even when checking the query WMI etc.)

  Ultimately, however, EXTPart has remedied the problem for me. (and quickly)

  If you do not use EXTPart, you can use the converter to recreate the disk.

• VMware Workstation 7. Machine.The virtual Windows XP file specified is not a virtual disk

  Hi all, thank you in advance for your help and sorry for my English.

  I was normally using Workstation on a Win7 system, emulating a Windows XP system. Now I try to turn on the machine and the following message appears:

  "The specified file is not a virtual disk.

  I reviewed the logs, the file .vmx and I can't find the error. I think that VMware can recognize the virtual drive as a SCSI unit.

  The files in the directory of virtual disk:

  VMware.log

  VMware - 0.log

  VMware - 1.log

  VMware - 2.log

  Windows XP Professional.nvram

  Windows XP Professional.vmdk (10 GB file)

  Windows XP Professional.vmsd

  Windows XP Professional.vmx

  Windows XP Professional.vmxf

  Tie newspapers, the .vmx file and a screenshot of the machine.

  Thanks again for your help

  As I have not examined the content of the hard I cannot give you a definitive answer but I'll tell you that, with the obvious corruption, shown in the first two sectors of the disk recovery at this stage, it is necessary advanced if it is not very advanced and can also be extremely laborious to get you in very advanced techniques.  The problem is that I don't have time to explain, and or to teach someone how to do what else can be right now because it was not learned and understood all night and just can not be easily passed along.

  Suffice to say if you did not good backups along the way, while it may have been a hard lesson learned I bet that in the future do you good backups from that point forward to easily recover when something bad happens new!

• Machines Windows does not start with 2 virtual disks different on 2 different

  Hello

  With the help of esx.3.5.0 update 3

  I have a problem where if I have a new VM to win 7 or Win 2008 r2 with or without vmtools.

  If I reboot it up to 10 times without having to install anything, whether he'll join the black windows loading screen, then restart and then restart and try to start in safe mode, it still does not start.  the machine rendering it useless.

  The single element only on these virtual machines is as follows.

  Windows machines have 2 different virtual disks 1 on a lun, VMFS (vmfs version 3.21 c:) and a RDM VMFS (d :))

  3 questions

  Is it a problem to have 2 different discs with 2 different stores file types?

  Would this questions we see above?

  Also, I thought that you might not? VMotion/clone? a virtual machine if she drives in 2 different places?

  I tested and I can vmotion live VM with records stored on 2 different LUN.

  Hello.

  With the help of esx.3.5.0 update 3

  I have a problem where if I have a new VM to win 7 or Win 2008 r2 with or without vmtools.

  If I reboot it up to 10 times without having to install anything, whether he'll join the black screen windows loading and then restart and then restart and try to start to > safe mode, it will not even start.  the machine rendering it useless.

  Windows 7 and 2008 R2 are not supported in this version.  5 update brings support for these two operating systems.  Go to U5, maybe it's the solution.

  3 questions

  Is it a problem to have 2 different discs with 2 different stores file types?

  Laughing out loud

  Would this questions we see above?

  It is unlikely.

  Also, I thought that you might not? VMotion/clone? a virtual machine if she drives in 2 different places?

  I tested and I can vmotion live VM with records stored on 2 different LUN.

  VMotion requires shared storage.  Local storage would be a problem if you tried to change hosts.

  also would it be a problem if 1 store was running 3.2.1 vmfs and other store runs 3.31 and a v on each disc is used for the VM 1?

  Lol this is explained in KB 1005325.

  Good luck!

• "The virtual disk parent has changed..." "after removing a few shots

  Hey!

  I'm using VMWare Workstation and deleted a few shots via the Snapshot Manager. I used a .vhd Image from the Microsoft Site (Windows Server 2003, x 86). VMWare has created a link to this image at the beginning. I was working on this virtual machine for 2 weeks.

  Now, I have deleted 2 snapshots, including the first snapshot. When I try to start all the existing snapshots the error which is entered in the subject line of this discussion. Detailed error explains that his "cannot open disk 0 - 0000004.vmdk or one of the snapshot disks it costs on.» Reason: the virtual disk parent... »

  How can I access any of the existing snapshots in the future? I read that it is necessary to open the virtual disk images and change the CID of this disk image virtual to who should be the one parent. But how do I edit these virtual disk in windows vista? I have no command line tool that extracts only the first 20 lines of a file so that it will be impossible for me to open a vhdk with 600 or 700 MB. Another problem is that (I don't know why) my virtual disks are splitet in so many parts (I said at the beginning that the virtual disk must be a file, but I think splitet VMWare Workstation it because she had to be converted to .vhd (Microsoft) .vhdk... might be?)

  Here's a screenshot of my file of VMWare this virtual machine sorted by type and sorted by size (for a better overview, I think):

  na ja... Falls die Datei ist - wurde neulich, als VirtualPC platte used sharp available?

  Wenn nein - und nur dann!

  ersetz

  disk-0 - 000002.vmdk

  disk-0 - 000004.vmdk

  mit den editierten aus dem Anhang versions.

  Falls from the dir unsicher bist - nach frag!

  Ulli

  ___________________________________

  VMX-settings- VMware-liveCD - VM-infirmary

• Reconfigure the virtual disk using OpenManage of RAID 0, RAID-5

  I apologize for the spacing.  I'm having a little wrong with this forum edit my post.

  My small business has had a T610 run for a few years with the following configuration:

  T610 Server

  PERC 6 / i controller

  4 physical disk 1 TB

  Virtual disk 0 size 1 800 GB RAID - 5

  Size of the virtual disk 1 992 GB RAID - 5

  Virtual Disk 1 was running Exchange and everything else on VD 0.

  Last weekend, I had a breakdown of table flat due to the failure of a damaged drive on Windows SBS 2008, who couldn't recover. When I contacted support Pro and got a new drive, I was told not to recreate the same virtual drives and use one.

  The local tech and I have been quite underlined and used the Perc 6 / I BIOS to recreate the exact configuration. Then, we had to use Backup Exec 2010 to restore the data. Somehow, we have selected by mistake instead of RAID 5 RAID-0 on recreation of the two virtual disks.

  So now, I have the following configuration in OpenManage:

  Virtual disk 0 size 1 800 GB RAID - 0

  Size of the virtual disk 1 992 GB RAID - 0

  I called Dell and gave instructions in OpenManage on how to reconfigure a virtual disk by adding a physical drive and conversion to RAID-5. My problem is reconfigure is not an option in the dropdown menu, I am told, because I have two virtual disks that have stripes.

  I have the ability to drive to go to 1 single virtual disk, given only Exchange is on the second and I can move, then unmold Virtual Disk 1. So my plan is:

  Full backup tape.

  Move Exchange off the drive sitting in virtual disk 1 to disk on virtual disk 0.

  Remove the virtual disk 1.

  Add a 5th physical HD.

  I hope at this point OpenManage will then give me the option in the drop-down list to reconfigure Virtual Disk 0.

  The option to Reconfigure in OpenManage will appear after that he sees only 1 virtual disk?

  Hello

  KRoy66

  The option to Reconfigure in OpenManage will appear after that he sees only 1 virtual disk?

  Yes, the ability to reconfigure should be available as soon as you remove the second table off readers. Technicians are you talked with correct you cannot reconfigure a table in slices.

  I know that you went through the entire process of relocation and restoration of backup, but it is preferable that do you it again. Let me explain why your table has been configured in this way, and why you may need to reinstall again.

  There are limits on the partition. To create a partition more of 2 TB, it must be TPG. In order to boot the system from a partition GPT Board must be set to UEFI mode. The problem you will encounter when trying to create a large RAID 5 is that you will not be able to use more than 2 TB of it. You create a new table in slices to use the extra space.

  If the system card is already set to UEFI mode then you should be able to convert the GPT partition and expand to necessary to hold account space. If you have installed the operating system with the system of administration established on the MBR can change in UEFI and conversion of GPT likely to cause BONE to be unstable if you are able to boot on it at all.

  I think you need to save yourself a lot of hassle and do this upgraded correctly. I know it will be a lot more time to restart, but you should set the UEFI boot mode, remove the two RAID 0, create the new large RAID 5, reinstall the OS and then restore the backup.

  Do it right now probably will save you a lot of time.

  Thank you

• How to install Firefox 7 on a virtual disk in Windows 7?

  Firefox automatically installs in my program files and won't let me change that. I have a permanent virtual disk. I think that Firefox would go faster if I installed it on the ram disk.

  That will probably not noticeable different because Firefox loads the files of program in memory after loading and the profile folder with all the personal data is located elsewhere.
  
  It is usually written causing the more delays, especially if anti-virus software checks each entry.

  See the Firefox profile folder:

  • http://KB.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
  • Help > troubleshooting information > profile directory: opens showing the file

• Increase the size of the virtual disk.

  I just installed Windows virtual PC on Windows 7 64 bit and I try to install a program of 6 GB.  He said that there is not enough memory.
  The size of the virtual disk in less than 2 GB and I can't find any way to increase this size.  I tried to create a second virtual disk with more memory, but the same error comes back.  Is there a way I can increase the size of the primary virtual disk?

  Post here http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7install/threads or here http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7programs/threads instead.

• Acer Aspire V5 - 572G windows update, net and virtual disk problems.

  So I installed w7 x 64 ultimate on my laptop and notiiced windows update does not work. It shows that he can not connet to the server. After trying to fix it I discovered that I need to install net framework, which I tried, but he also failed because when I download the framework and before I press on install it shows me how much to download and it is 0. After I press on install it loads a little and it is said that he was not successful. Also tried to download some programs, such as driverpack, drivers search for and he found this lack gcdbusdevice and dcbusdevice im. When I tried downlaoding them, they seem not to exist. And when I try to install daemon tools or some simillar programs, it will fail to install, or fails to create a virtual disk, and after that the laptop can not stop lights. I have to use the restore point, and then he turns then on.

  So yes, some advice or help would be nice, thank you.

  Please see this link:
  Installation of a different operating system

  There are no drivers Windows 7 for the V5 - 572G on our page drivers.

  We don't support Windows 7 on this model.