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Table Of Contents
VMware Server User’s Guide
142 VMware, Inc.
Hard Disk Types and Properties
Mostvirtualmachinesareconfiguredwithoneormorevirtualharddisks.Avirtual
diskisafileorsetoffilesthatappearsasaphysicaldisktotheguestoperatingsystem.
Thesefilesarecreatedinthedatastorelocationthatyouspecify.See“Managing
Datastores”onpage 110.
Thissection
describesthesettingsyoucanconfigurewhenyouaddoreditavirtual
disk.
Disk Capacity Setting
Whenyoucreateanewvirtualdisk,specifyamaximumdisksizeinMBorGB.Setthe
maximumsizetoavaluebetween1MBand950GB.
Ifthevirtualmachinedoesnothaveasnapshot,youcanincreasethemaximumdisk
sizewhenyoueditaSCSIvirtualdisk.
Disk File Options Settings (New Disk Only)
Whencreatinganewvirtualdisk,youcanspecifywhetherspaceforthediskfilesis
allocatedasneeded(calledagrowabledisk)orallocatedallatoncewhenthediskis
created(calledapreallocateddisk).
Agrowablediskiscreatedbydefault.Growablediskfilesuselessdiskspace
initially
andgrowtotheirmaximumsizeonlyasadditionalspaceisneeded.However,ittakes
longertowritedatatogrowabledisks.
IfyouselectAllocatealldiskspacenow,alldiskspaceispreallocatedatthetimethe
diskiscreated.Thisprovidesbettervirtualmachineperformance.However,
you
cannotshrinkthedisklater.
YouarealsogiventheoptionSplitdiskinto2GBfiles.Selectthisoptionifyourvirtual
diskisstoredonafilesystem(suchasFAT16)thatdoesnotsupportfileslargerthan
2GB.
Disk Mode Settings
SelectwhetherornottorunthediskinIndependentMode.Independentdisksadda
layerofcontrolandcomplexitytoyourvirtualdisks.DisksinIndependentModeare
notaffectedbysnapshots.
N
OTEPreallocatingdiskspaceisatimeconsumingoperationthatcannotbecanceled
andrequiresasmuchphysicaldiskspaceastheamountyouspecifyforvirtualdisk
capacity.