Specifications

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 123
Chapter 6 Using Disks in a Virtual Machine
If!you!are!setting!up!a!new!virtual!machine,!follow!the !custom!path!in!the!New!Virtual!
Machine!Wizard.!In!the!screen!that!lets!you!specify!the!virtual!disk’s!capacity,!select!
Split!disk!into!2GB!files.
If!you!are!adding!a!virtual!disk!to!an!existing!virtual!machine,!follow!the!steps
!in!the!
Add!Hardware!Wizard.!In!the!screen!that!lets!you!specify!the!virtual!disk’s!capacity,!
select!Split!disk!into!2GB!files.
When!a!disk!is!split!into!multiple!files,!larger!virtual!disks!have!more!.vmdk!files.!
The!first!.vmdk!file!for!each!disk!is!small!and!contains!pointers!to!
the!other!files!that!
make!up!the!virtual!disk.!The!other!.vmdk!files!contain!data!stored!by!your!virtual!
machine!and!use!a!small!amount!of!space!for!virtual!machine!overhead.
By!default,!all!disk!space!is!allocated!when!you!create!the!virtual!disk.!A!preallocated!
virtual!disk!has!fixed!file!
sizes,!and!most!of!the!files!are!2GB.!As!mentioned!above,!the!
first!file!is!small.!The!last!file!in!the!series!might!also!be!smaller!than!2GB.
If!you!chose!not!to!allocate!the!space!in!advance,!the!.vmdk!files!grow!as!data!is!added,!
to!a!maximum!of!2GB!
each!!except!for!the!first!file!in!the!set,!which!remains!small.
The!virtual!machine!settings!editor!shows!the!name!of!the!first!file!in!the!set!!the!one!
that!contains!pointers!to!the!other!files!in!the!set.!The!other!files!used!for!that!disk!are!
assigned!names!
based!on!the!name!of!the!first!file.!
For!example,!a!Windows!2000!Server!virtual!machine!using!the!default!configuration,!
with!files!that!grow!as!needed,!stores!the!disk!in!files!named!Windows 2000
Server.vmdk,!Windows 2000 Server-s001.vmdk,!Windows 2000 Server-s002.vmdk!and!so!
on.
If!the!disk!space!is!allocated!in!advance!and!the!virtual!disk
!is!split!into!2GB!files,!the!
names!are!similar,!except!that!they!include!an!f!instead!of!an!s!!for!example,!Windows
2000 Server-f001.vmdk.!If!the!disk!is!not!split!into!2GB!files,!the!virtual!machine!stores!
the!disk!in!two!files,!named!Windows 2000 Server.vmdk!and!Windows 2000
Server-flat.vmdk.
If!you!are!using
!a!physical!disk,!the!.vmdk!file!stores!information!about!the!physical!disk!
or!partition!used!by!the!virtual!machine.
Redo-Log Files
Redolog!files!are!stored!in!the!virtual!machine’s!working!directory,!and!are!for!saving!
changes!to!independentnonpersistent!disks.!Redolog!files!save!blocks!that !the!virtual!
machine!modifies!while!it!is!running.!The!redolog!file!for!a!disk!in!
independentnonpersistent!mode!is!not!saved!when!the!
virtual!machine!is!powered!off!
or!reset.!