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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 177
Chapter 8 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager
Viewing Virtual Machine Datastore Directories
TheContextviewprovidesahighlevelviewofthedependenciesbetweenvirtual
machines.TheContextviewforavirtualmachinedisplaysatreeviewofthevirtual
machine’srelationshiptoothervirtualmachinesonwhichitdepends(ancestornodes)
andwhichdependonit(childnodes).Eachnodeinthe
treerepresentsaspecific
directorylocationonthedatastore.
Lab Managercreatesnodesforoperationssuchaslinkedcloning.Whenyoumakea
linkedcloneavirtualmachine,Lab Managercreatesadeltadiskinsteadofcopyingthe
entirevirtualharddisk.Witheachlinkedcloneoperation,Lab M anagerfreezesthe
originaldelta
diskandcreatesanewone.Thevirtualmachinediskasawholeconsists
ofitsowndeltadiskandthedeltadisksofancestordisks.Thisseriesofdisksrepresents
thechainlengthofavirtualmachine.Avirtualmachinewithalongchainlengthwill
haveamuchmore
Contextviewthanavirtualmachinewithashortchainlength.
Deletingavirtualmachinedeletesthestorageoccupiedbythevirtualmachinenode
andanyancestornodethatcanbesafelydeleted.Lab Managerwillnotdeletean
ancestornodeundertheseconditions:
Theancestordirectoryhasotherchilddirectoriesdependentonit.
Avirtualmachine(forexample,avirtualmachinetemplateorvirtualmachinein
theconfigurationlibrary)isassociatedwiththeancestornode.
Anothernodeusestheancestornodeasarevertpoint.Forexample,afullclone
operationmightconsolidateandcreateanewdiskbutrefertotherevertpointof
theoriginalchain.
Figure 81showsabasicexampleofatreeofrelatedvirtualmachinesandtheinternal
nodesaffected
byadeleteoperation.
Figure 8-1. Example of Nodes Affected by a Delete Operation
IfyoudeletenodeD,nodeBstaysintactbecausenodeCandEaredependentonit.If
youdeletenodeE,thespacefornodeEandnodeCbecomesavailablebecausethe
deletionaffectsallnodesuptoadirectorywithchilddependencies
(nodeB).
BA
C
D
E