For more information about the VMware Management Interface, go to www.vmware.com/support/gsx3/doc/.


Configuring a Virtual Machine's Virtual Disks
Configuring a Virtual Machine's Virtual Disks

You can configure existing virtual disks for a virtual machine or create new virtual disks. For more information on virtual disks, physical disks and virtual machines, see www.vmware.com/support/gsx3/doc/disks_gsx.html.

Configuring an Existing Virtual Disk
Configuring an Existing Virtual Disk

To configure an existing virtual disk, make sure the virtual machine is powered off, then complete the following steps.

  1. To configure an existing virtual disk, on the Hardware page, under Virtual Disk, click Edit. The Virtual Disk page appears.
  2. To add an existing virtual disk, decide whether disk is IDE or SCSI. Then under IDE type or SCSI type, click Blank. The Virtual Disk Configuration page appears.

    Specify the following:

    1. In the Disk File field, enter the location for the virtual disk.
    2. Specify the virtual device node in the Virtual IDE Node or Virtual SCSI Node list as appropriate.
    3. Decide if you want to make this virtual disk an independent disk. Under Disk Mode, check Independent, then check Persistent or Nonpersistent.
  3. Click OK to save your changes and close the window.
Adding a New Virtual Disk
Adding a New Virtual Disk

To add a new virtual disk to a virtual machine, make sure the virtual machine is powered off, then complete the following steps.

  1. On the Hardware page, click Add Device. The Add Device Wizard starts.
  2. Click Hard Disk. The Virtual Disk page appears.
  3. To create a new virtual disk, decide whether you want the disk to be IDE or SCSI. Then under IDE type or SCSI type, click Blank. The Virtual Disk Configuration page appears.

    Specify the following:

    1. In the Disk File field, enter the location and name of the virtual disk.
    2. In the Capacity field, specify the size of the virtual disk in megabytes (MB). By default, the virtual disk is a preallocated disk.
    3. Specify the virtual device node in the Virtual IDE Node or Virtual SCSI Node list as appropriate.
    4. Decide if you want to make this virtual disk an independent disk. Under Disk Mode, check Independent, then check Persistent or Nonpersistent.
    5. Decide if you want to preallocate the virtual disk space. Allocating all the space at the time you create the virtual disk gives somewhat better performance and ensures you do not run out of disk space on the host, but it requires as much disk space as the size you specify for the virtual disk. You cannot shrink a preallocated disk. To preallocate the virtual disk, check the Allocate all disk space now check box.

      A preallocated virtual disk is needed for clustering virtual machines. For more information about clustering, see www.vmware.com/support/gsx3/doc/ha_configs_gsx.html.

      If you do not preallocate the disk, the virtual disk's files start small and grow as needed, but they can never grow larger than the size you set here.

      You may also specify whether you want the virtual disk created as one large file or split into a set of 2GB files. You should split the virtual disk it is stored on a FAT32 file system. To do this, check Split into 2 GB files.

  4. Click OK to add the disk. Click Cancel to create a different type of disk.