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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 149
Chapter 8 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware
4ClickYes.
Shrinkingdiskscantakeconsiderabletime.
5ClickOK.
Using VMware Virtual Disk Manager
VMwareVirtualDiskManagerisautilitythatallowsyoutocreate,manage,and
modifyvirtualdiskfilesfromthecommandlineorinscripts.
Unlikeaphysicaldisk,youcanenlargeavirtualdisksothatthemaximumcapacityis
largerthanitwaswhenyoucreatedit.Thisis
usefulifyouneedmorediskspaceina
givenvirtualmachine,butdonotwanttoaddanothervirtualdiskorifyouuse
ghostingsoftwaretotransferthedataonavirtualdisktoalargervirtualdisk.
Youcanalsochangedisktypes.Whenyoucreateavirtual
machine,youspecifyhow
diskspaceisallocated,asfollows:
Allspaceforthevirtualdiskisallocatedinadvance.Thiscorrespondstothe
preallocateddisktypeforVirtualDiskManager.
Spaceallocatedforthevirtualdiskgrowsasneeded.Thiscorrespondstothe
growabledisktypeforVirtualDiskManager.
Ifyouallocateallthediskspaceforavirtualdiskbutlaterneedtoreclaimsomehard
diskspaceonthehost,youcanconvertthepreallocatedvirtualdiskinto
agrowable
disk.Thenewvirtualdiskisstilllargeenoughtocontainallthedataintheoriginal
virtualdisk.
Youcanalsochangewhetherthevirtualdiskisstoredinasinglefileorsplitinto2GB
files.
SeetheVMwaretechnicalnoteaboutusingVirtualDiskManager.
Moving Virtual Disks
Akeyadvantageofvirtualdisksistheirportability.Becausethevirtualdisksarestored
asfilesinadatastoreonalocalornetworkedfilesystem,youcanmovethemeasilyto
anewlocationonthesamecomputerortoadifferentcomputer.Youcanalsocreate
virtualdisks
onaWindowshostandmovethemtoaLinuxcomputerorthereverse.