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Table Of Contents
VMware Server User’s Guide
324 VMware, Inc.
.vmdk Virtualdiskfilesstoretheinformationwrittentoa
virtualmachine’sharddisk,includingtheoperating
system,programfiles,anddatafiles.Avirtualdiskis
madeupofoneormore.vmdkfiles.
Ifyoucreatemorethanonevirtualdisk,the
correspondingdiskfilesincludeanumberinthe
filenamefollowingthevirtualmachinename.
<vm_name>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>.vmdk
Growabledisksincreaseinsizeasdataisadded.
Growablediskfilesuseasmallamountofspaceat
thebeginningofthefileforvirtualmachine
overhead.
<vm_name>.vmdk
<vm_name>-flat.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>-flat.vmdk
Preallocateddisksarecreatedattheirmaximumsize
anddonotgrow.
Twofiles
arecreatedforeachpreallocatedvirtual
disk.Thefilewithoutflatinthenamecontains
metadataaboutthecorrespondingdiskfile.
<vm_name>.vmdk
<vm_name>-f<###>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>-f<###>.vmdk
Preallocatedvirtualdiskfilessplitinto2GBchunks.
Thenumberoffilesdependsonthetotalsizeofthe
virtualdisk.Asdataisaddedtoavirtual
disk,the
.vmdk filesgrow,toamaximumof2GBeach.
<vm_name>.vmdk
<vm_name>-s<###>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>-s<###>.vmdk
Growablevirtualdiskfilessplitinto2GBchunks.
Thenumberoffilesdependsonthetotalsizeofthe
virtualdisk.Asdataisaddedtoavirtualdisk,the
.vmdk filesgrow,toamaximumof2GB
each.
<vm_name>-<######>.vmdk
<vm_name>_<#>-<######>.vmdk
Redologfilesstorechangestodisksthatare
includedinsnapshots.Theseredofilesaresaved
whenthevirtualmachineispoweredofforreset.
Whenyoureverttothesnapshot,thecontentsofthe
redologarediscarded.Anyadditionalchangesare,
onceagain,accumulatedina
newredolog.
Redologfilesthatstorechangestononpersistent
disksarepresentwhilethevirtualmachineis
running,andarediscardedwhenthevirtual
machineispoweredofforreset.
Table B-1. Virtual Machine Files (Continued)
Extension File Name Description