Specifications

Specifying Disk Capacity for a Virtual Machine
If you instruct the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a new virtual disk during a custom configuration,
the wizard prompts you to set the size of the virtual disk and specify whether to split the disk into multiple
virtual disk (.vmdk) files.
A virtual disk is made up of one or more virtual disk files. Virtual disk files store the contents of the virtual
machine hard disk drive. Almost all of the file content is virtual machine data. A small portion of the file is
allotted to virtual machine overhead. If the virtual machine is connected directly to a physical disk, the
virtual disk file stores information about the partitions that the virtual machine is allowed to access.
You can set a size between 0.001GB and 8TB for a virtual disk file. You can also select whether to store a
virtual disk as a single file or split it into multiple files.
Select Split virtual disk into multiple files if the virtual disk is stored on a file system that has a file size
limitation. When you split a virtual disk less than 950GB, a series of 2GB virtual disk files are created. When
you split a virtual disk greater than 950GB, two virtual disk files are created. The maximum size of the first
virtual disk file is 1.9TB and the second virtual disk file stores the rest of the data.
Disk space is not preallocated for the disk. The actual files that the virtual disk uses start small and expand
to their maximum size as needed. The main advantage of this approach is the smaller file size. Smaller files
require less disk space and are easier to move to a new location.
After you create a virtual machine, you can edit virtual disk settings and add additional virtual disks.
Customizing Virtual Machine Hardware
You can click Customize Hardware on the last page of the New Virtual Machine wizard to customize the
virtual machine hardware.
You can change the default hardware settings, including memory allocation, number of virtual CPUs,
CD/DVD and floppy drive settings, and the network connection type.
Worksheet for Creating a Typical Virtual Machine
You can print this worksheet and write the values to specify when you create a typical virtual machine.
Table 3‑4. Worksheet: Typical Virtual Machine
Option Write Your Value Here
Guest operating system source
Guest operating system type for manual installation
Easy Install information for Windows guests
n
Product key
n
Operating system version
n
Full name
n
Password
n
Credentials for automatic login
Easy Install information for Linux guests
n
Full name
n
User name
n
Password
Virtual machine name
Virtual machine location
Disk capacity
Getting Started with VMware Player
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