6.5.1

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Add an RDM Disk to a Virtual Machine
You can use a raw device mapping (RDM) to store virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN,
instead of storing it in a virtual disk file. You can add an RDM disk to an existing virtual machine, or
you can add the disk when you customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine
creation process.
Add a New Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
You can add a virtual hard disk to an existing virtual machine, or you can add a hard disk when you
customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process. For example, you
might need to provide additional disk space for an existing virtual machine with a heavy work load. During
virtual machine creation, you might want to add a hard disk that is preconfigured as a boot disk.
During virtual machine creation, a hard disk and a SCSI or SATA controller are added to the virtual
machine by default, based on the guest operating system that you select. If this disk does not meet your
needs, you can remove it and add a new hard disk at the end of the creation process.
If you add multiple hard disks to a virtual machine, you can assign them to several controllers to improve
performance. For controller and bus node behavior, see SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions,
Limitations, and Compatibility.
Prerequisites
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Ensure that you are familiar with configuration options and caveats for adding virtual hard disks. See
Virtual Disk Configuration.
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Before you add disks greater than 2TB to a virtual machine, see Large Capacity Virtual Disk
Conditions and Limitations.
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Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk privilege on the destination
folder or datastore.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 (Optional) To delete the existing hard disk, move your cursor over the disk and click the Remove
icon.
The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk files
are not deleted.
3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select New Hard Disk from the New device drop-down menu and click
Add.
The hard disk appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list.
4 Expand New hard disk.
5 (Optional) Type a value for the hard disk and select the units from the drop-down menu.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
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