virtual disk manager

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Virtual Disk Manager Users GuideVirtual Disk Development Kit


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VMware, Inc.

3401 Hillview Ave.Palo Alto, CA 94304www.vmware.com

2 VMware, Inc.

Virtual Disk Manager Users Guide

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:

http://www.vmware.com/support/

The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.

If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to:

[email protected]

2008 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672,6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,944,699, 6,961,806, 6,961,941, 7,069,413, 7,082,598,7,089,377, 7,111,086, 7,111,145, 7,117,481, 7,149,843, 7,155,558, 7,222,221, 7,260,815, 7,260,820, 7,269,683, 7,275,136,7,277,998, 7,277,999, 7,278,030, 7,281,102, 7,290,253, 7,356,679, 7,409,487, 7,412,492, 7,412,702, 7,424,710, and 7,428, 636;patents pending.

VMware, the VMware boxes logo and design, Virtual SMP, and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks ofVMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarksof their respective companies.


Item: EN-000046-01
http://www.vmware.com/supportmailto:[email protected]://www.vmware.com/supporthttp://www.vmware.com/support/mailto:[email protected]


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Contents

About

This

Book 5

UsingVMwareVirtualDiskManager 7AboutVirtualDiskManager 7

UsesofVirtualDiskManager 8

VMwareDiskMount 8

RunningVirtualDiskManager 8

ExamplesUsingVirtualDiskManager 10

CreatingaVirtualDisk 10

ConvertingaVirtualDisk 10

IncreasingtheSizeofanExistingVirtualDisk 10

RenamingorRelocatingaVirtualDisk 11

Defragmenting

a

Virtual

Disk 11ShrinkingaVirtualDisk 12


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ThisVMwaremanual,theVirtualDiskManagerUsersGuide,providesanintroductiontousingthevmware-vdiskmanagercommandlineutility.

Revision History

Thisbookisrevisedwitheachreleaseoftheproductorwhennecessary.Arevisedversioncancontainminor

ormajorchanges.Table P1summarizesthesignificantchangesineachversionofthisguide.

Intended AudienceThisbookisintendedforanyonewhousesVMwareVirtualDiskManager.Userstypicallyincludepeoplewho

dosoftwaredevelopmentandtestingorworkwithmultipleoperatingsystemsorcomputingenvironments:

systemadministrators,applicationdevelopers,QAengineers,andanyonewhowantstocreate,manage,and

modifyvirtualdiskfilesfromscriptsoratthecommandline.

Documentation Resources

ToaccessthecurrentversionsofVMwareAPIandSDKdocumentation,goto:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/sdk_pubs.html

ToaccessthecurrentversionsofotherVMwaremanuals,goto:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs

Documentation Feedback

VMwarewelcomesyoursuggestionsforimprovingourdocumentation.Sendyourfeedbackto:

[email protected]

About This Book

Table P-1. Revision History

Revision Date Description of Changes

20070420 FirstversionoftheVirtualDiskManagerUsersGuide.20070607 UpdatewithsupportforLinuxhostsandremotevirtualdisks.

20080128 Added-toption5forthecompressedstreamvirtualdisktype.

20080407 Added-Soptiontoswitchremotesystemfromtargettosource.

20080407 ReissuedwithVMwareWorkstation6.5andVMwareServer2.0.
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/sdk_pubs.htmlhttp://www.vmware.com/support/pubsmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.vmware.com/support/pubshttp://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/sdk_pubs.html


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Technical Support and Education Resources

Thefollowingsectionsdescribethetechnicalsupportandeducationalresourcesavailabletoyou.

Online Support

YoucansubmitquestionsorpostcommentstotheDeveloperCommunitySDKsandAPIsforum,whichis

monitoredbyVMwaretechnicalsupportandproductteams.Toaccesstheforum,goto:

http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer

Support Offerings

TofindouthowVMwaresupportofferingscanhelpmeetyourbusinessneeds,goto:

http://www.vmware.com/support/services

VMware Professional Services

VMwareEducationServicescoursesofferextensivehandsonlabs,casestudyexamples,andcoursematerials

designedtobeusedasonthejobreferencetools.Coursesareavailableonsite,intheclassroom,andlive

online.Foronsitepilotprograms andimplementationbestpractices,VMwareConsultingServicesprovides

offeringstohelpyouassess,plan,build,andmanageyourvirtualenvironment.Toaccessinformationabout

educationclasses,certificationprograms,andconsultingservices,goto:

http://www.vmware.com/services/
http://communities.vmware.com/community/developerhttp://www.vmware.com/support/serviceshttp://www.vmware.com/services/http://www.vmware.com/services/http://www.vmware.com/support/serviceshttp://communities.vmware.com/community/developer


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Uses of Virtual Disk Manager

YoucanuseVirtualDiskManagerto:

Automatethemanagementofvirtualdiskswithscripts.

Createvirtualdisksthatarenotyetassociatedwithaparticularvirtualmachine.Thisisusefulformaking

templatestospeedcreationofvirtualmachine.

Convert

an

existing

local

virtual

disk

to

a

remote

ESX

virtual

disk. Createacompresseddiskoptimizedforstreaming.

Switchthevirtualdisktypefrompreallocatedtogrowable,orfromgrowabletopreallocated.Whenyou

changethedisktypetogrowable,youreclaimsomediskspace.Youcanshrinkthevirtualdisktoreclaim

evenmorediskspace.

Expandthesizeofavirtualdisksoitislargerthanthesizespecifiedwhenyoucreatedit.

Defragmentvirtualdisks.

Prepareandshrinkvirtualdiskswithoutpoweringonthevirtualmachine.

Renameandmovevirtualdisks.

YoucanuseVirtualDiskManagerwithvirtualdiskscreatedunderVMwareServer,VMwareWorkstation5

orhigher,VMwareFusion,VMwarePlayer,VMwareGSXServer,VMwareACE(unencrypteddisksonly),and

VMwareESX/ESXiserver(onlypreallocateddisksoftype4).

VMware Disk Mount

SomediskmanagementactivitiesrequireyoutomountaVMDKasavolumeorfilesystemavailabletothe

hostorguestoperatingsystem.SeetherelatedmanualVMwareDiskMountUsersGuideformoreinformation.Running Virtual Disk Manager

BackupyourvirtualdiskfilesbycopyingthemelsewherebeforemakingchangeswithVirtualDiskManager.

To run Virtual Disk Manager

1 Openacommandpromptorterminalonthehost.

PathisprobablysetcorrectlybytheVMwareinstallation,butyoumighthavetochangetothedirectory

whereyouinstalledVMwareVirtualDiskManager.

2 Typethevmware-vdiskmanagercommandtodisplayusageinformation.

Thecommandsyntaxisoneof:

vmware-vdiskmanager

vmware-vdiskmanager

Usetospecifythenameofavirtualdiskfile(VMDK)thatyouwanttocreate,manage,ormodify.

Thevirtualdiskfilemusthavea.vmdkextension.Youmayspecifyapathinfrontofthefilename.Forexample:

C:\DocumentsandSettings\\My Documents\MyVirtualMachines\VMname\newvmdisk.vmdk

(onaWindowshost)or/path/to/disk/newvmdisk.vmdk(onaLinuxhost).Ifyoumappedanetworkshare

onthehost,youcancreatethevirtualdiskonthatsharebyprovidingpathinformationwiththediskname.

Usetospecifythedriveletterormountpointassociatedwithavirtualdiskthatwas

mountedusingVMwareDiskMount.Youmustmountavirtualdisktoprepareitforshrinking.

SeeTable 1,VMwareVirtualDiskManagerOptions,onpage 9foradescriptionofcommandlineoptions.

SeeExamplesUsingVirtualDiskManageronpage 10forsamplecommandstoperformvarioustasks.

NOTE YoucannotuseVirtualDiskManagertocreateortoshrinkphysicalharddrives.


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Using VMware Virtual Disk Manager

Table 1. VMware Virtual Disk Manager Options

Option Parameters Description

-c Createsalocalvirtualdisk.The-a,-s,and-toptions,andavirtualdisknamespecifiedby,arerequiredwhencreatingavirtualdisk.

-d Defragmentsthevirtualdiskspecifiedby.Youcandefragmentonlygrowablevirtualdisks,notpreallocatedorremotevirtualdisks.

-k Shrinks

the

virtual

disk

specified

by

.

Before

you

can

shrink

a

virtual

disk,youmustprepareallitsvolumesforshrinkingusingthe-poption.Youcanshrinkonlygrowablevirtualdisks,notpreallocatedorremotevirtualdisks.

-n Renamesthevirtualdisknamedbytothevirtualdisknamedby.Byspecifyingdirectorypaths,youcanplacetherenamedvirtualdiskinadifferentdirectory,eitherwithitsoriginalnameorwithanewname.

-p Preparesthevirtualdiskmountedat(Windows)orat(Linux)forshrinking.Ifthevirtualdiskispartitionedintodifferentvolumesorfilesystems,youmustseparatelymountandprepareeachoneforshrinking.

-r Converts(clones)thevirtualdisknamedby,creatinganewvirtualdisknamedby.

Forlocalthe-toptionisrequiredtospecifytype.

ForremoteonanESXhost,usethe-h,-u,and-foptions.

Forthevirtualmachinetorecognizetheconvertedvirtualdisk,editthevirtualmachinesettingstoremovetheexistingvirtualdiskfromthevirtualmachine,thenaddtheconverteddisktothevirtualmachine.

-x [GB|MB|KB] Expands(grows)thevirtualdiskspecifiedbytothegivencapacity,whichyoucanspecifyingigabytes(GB),megabytes(MB),orkilobytes(KB).Thenewcapacitymustbegreaterthantheoriginalcapacity.Youcanexpandlocalvirtualdisksonly.Youcannotchangethesizeofaphysicalharddrive.

-q DisablesVirtualDiskManagerlogging.

Otherwise,messagesthatVirtualDiskManagergeneratesarerecordedinalogfilevdiskmanager.logstoredinatemporarydirectory.

-a [ide|buslogic|lsilogic] Specifiesthediskadaptertype.Thisoptionisrequiredwhenyoucreateavirtualdisk.Chooseoneofthefollowingadaptertypes:

ideanIDEadapter,forcompatibilitywitholdsoftware.

buslogicaBusLogicSCSIadapter,forhighperformance.

lsilogicLSILogicSCSIadapter,forhighperformanceonnewsystems.

-s [GB|MB|KB] Specifiesthesizeofthevirtualdisk.Thisoptionisrequiredwhenyoucreateavirtualdisk.Youcanspecifydisksizeingigabytes(GB),megabytes(MB),orkilobytes(KB).Sizemustbe1MB(2000sectors)orgreater.

Donotusethe-soptionwhenyouexpandavirtualdisk;specifydisksizeusingthe-xoptioninstead.

-t [0|1|2|3|4|5] Specifiesthevirtualdisktype.Thisoptionisrequiredwhenyoucreateorconvertavirtualdisk.Chooseoneofthefollowingtypes:

0createagrowablevirtualdiskcontainedinasinglefile(monolithicsparse).

1createagrowablevirtualdisksplitinto2GBfiles(splitsparse).

2createapreallocatedvirtualdiskcontainedinasinglefile(monolithicflat).

3createapreallocatedvirtualdisksplitinto2GBfiles(splitflat).

4createapreallocatedvirtualdiskcompatiblewithESXserver(VMFSflat).

5createacompresseddiskoptimizedforstreaming.

-h SpecifiesthehostnameorIPaddressofaremoteESXhost.

-u SpecifiestheusernameforconnectingtoaremoteESXhost.

-f SpecifiesthenameandlocationofaplaintextfilethatcontainsthepasswordforconnectingtoaremoteESXhost.

-P SpecifiesaTCPportnumberforcommunicatingwiththeremoteESXhost.Thisisoptionalanddefaultsto902.

-S Switchestomakethesourcevirtualdiskremote,insteadofthetargetdiskremote.


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Examples Using Virtual Disk Manager

ThefollowingexamplesillustratehowtouseVirtualDiskManager.

Creating a Virtual Disk

To create a new virtual disk

ChangedirectorytothelocationwhereyouwantthenewVMDKandtypethiscommand:

vmware-vdiskmanager -c -a lsilogic -s 40GB -t 0 mydisk.vmdk

Thiscreatesa40GBSCSIvirtualdisknamedmydisk.vmdk.Typezeromeansthatthespaceiscontainedina

singlevirtualdiskfile,andthatdiskspaceisgrowable,notpreallocated.

Converting a Virtual Disk

To convert a virtual disk from preallocated to growable

AssumingsourceDisk.vmdkexistsastype2or3,typethiscommandtoconvertit:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 0 targetDisk.vmdk

ThisconvertsthediskfromitsoriginalpreallocatedtypetoagrowablevirtualdiskconsistingofoneVMDK

file.VirtualDiskManagerreclaimssomespaceinthevirtualdisk,sotheVMDKneedstobeonlyaboutaslarge

asthedataitcontainedatconversiontime.

To convert a local virtual disk to a remote ESX virtual disk

Forthisconversion,specifytype4forVMFSvirtualdisk,withremotediskoptions:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 4 -h esx3.example.com -u admin -f password.txt

"[storage1] /targetDisk.vmdk"

ThisconvertsthelocalvirtualdisktoremotevirtualdisklocatedonthespecifiedESXhost.Afterconversion

iscompleteandyouhavetestedtheconvertedvirtualdisktomakesureitworksasexpected,youmaydelete

theoriginalvirtualdiskfile.Ifyoudeletetheoriginalfile,alsoremoveitfromanyvirtualmachinethatusesit.

Toremoveit,chooseVM>Settings>Hardware,selectthevirtualdisk,andclickRemove.FortheESXhosttorecognizetheconvertedvirtualdisk,youmustaddthedisktothevirtualmachine.Choose

Inventory>VirtualMachine>EditSettings,clickAdd,andfollowthewizardpromptstoaddtheconvertedvirtualdiskfile.

Increasing the Size of an Existing Virtual Disk

To expand (grow) a virtual disk

SpecifysizeandgivethefullpathtotheVMDK,orchangedirectorytoitslocation:

vmware-vdiskmanager -x 80GB mydisk.vmdk

Thisincreasesthemaximumcapacityofthevirtualdiskto80GB.Unlikedefragmentingandshrinking,you

mayincreasethesizeofpreallocatedvirtualdisks(flattype2or3).

VirtualDiskManagerexpandsthevirtualdiskbutdoesnotmodifyitscontents,sothepartitioninformation

remainsthesame.Manyoperatingsystemscannotalterpartitionsizeaftercreation,soyoumighthaveto

obtainthirdpartysoftware,suchasPartitionMagicorGNUParted,todothis.Suchsoftwareallowsyouto

alterdiskpartitionssoavirtualmachinecanaccesstheadditionaldiskspace.

Anothermethodofincreasingpartitionsize,easierinsomecases,wouldbetouseVMwareConverter.

NOTE Alwaysbackup(copy)yourvirtualdiskfilesbeforechangingsize,defragmenting,orrenamingthem.

CAUTION WhencloningtoaremoteESXhost,VirtualDiskManageroverwritesanypreexistingVMDKfile.Thiscouldresultinlossofdata.Whencloningtolocaldisk,thedestinationVMDKisnotoverwritten.


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Using VMware Virtual Disk Manager

Renaming or Relocating a Virtual Disk

To rename or relocate a virtual disk

1 Removethevirtualdiskfromanyvirtualmachinethatcontainsthedisk.

ChooseVM>Settings>Hardware,selectthevirtualdisk,andclickRemove.2 Typeoneofthefollowingcommands:

Torenamethevirtualdiskandkeepitinthesamelocation,type:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n mydisk.vmdk myNewDisk.vmdk

Torenamethevirtualdiskandlocateitinadifferentdirectory,type:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n mydisk.vmdk "..\\myNewDisk.vmdk"

OnLinuxhosts,type:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n mydisk.vmdk ..//myNewDisk.vmdk

Tokeepthesamenamebutlocatethediskinadifferentdirectory,type:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n mydisk.vmdk "..\\mydisk.vmdk"

OnLinuxhosts,type:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n mydisk.vmdk ..//

3 Addthevirtualdiskbacktoanyvirtualmachinesthatuseit.

ChooseVM>Settings>Hardware,clickAdd,andfollowtheinstructionsinthewizard.Defragmenting a Virtual Disk

To defragment a virtual disk

Todefragmentalocalvirtualdisk,typethiscommand.

vmware-vdiskmanager -d myDisk.vmdk

Defragment

consolidates

sparse

disk,

moving

data

to

lower

numbered

sectors.

This

is

independent

of

any

defragmentationtoolsintheguestoperatingsystem,whichworkonvolumesstoredinsidetheVMDK.

Defragmentingdoesnotreclaimunusedspaceonavirtualdisk;todothis,youmustshrinkthedisk.

Youcannotdefragment:

Preallocatedvirtualdisks(flattype2or3)

Physicalharddrives

Virtualdisksthatareassociatedwithsnapshots.

Followthisorderofstepswhendefragmentingandshrinkingvirtualdisk:

1 Runadiskfragmentationtoolinsidethevirtualmachine.Forexample,withaWindows98guestoperating

system,runtheWindows98defragmentationtool.

VMwarerecommendsthatyoudefragmentaguestsvirtualdiskbeforetakingthefirstsnapshotofa

guest,orafterdeletingsnapshots.Otherwiseyoulosetheabilitytodefragmenttheguestsvirtualdisk,

becauseafterasnapshot,changesaremadetotheredolog,nottheoriginalvirtualdisk.Moreover,

defragmentationcanheavilymodifythevirtualdiskimage,resultinginaverylargeredolog.

2 Powerdownthevirtualmachineandusevmware-vdiskmanager-dtodefragmentitsvirtualdisk.This

isthesameasclickingHardDisk>Utilities>Defragmentintheuserinterface.3 Runadiskfragmentationtoolonthehostcomputer,ifneeded.ModernfilesystemssuchasNTFSand

Linuxext2andespeciallyext3arerelativelyresistanttodefragmentation.

4 ShrinkthevirtualdiskasdescribedinShrinkingaVirtualDiskonpage 12.


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Shrinking a Virtual Disk

Ifyouhaveavirtualdiskthatgrowsasyouadddata,youcanshrinkthediskinordertoreclaimunusedspace.

Ifthereisemptyspaceinthevirtualdisk,shrinkingreducestheamountofspacethattheVMDKfileoccupies

onthehost.Shrinkingavirtualdiskdoesnotchangethemaximumcapacityofthevirtualdiskitself.

PoweroffthevirtualmachinebeforeusingVirtualDiskManagertoprepareandshrinkgrowablevirtualdisks.

Youcannotshrink:

Preallocatedvirtualdisks(flattype2or3)

Physicalharddrives

Virtualdisksthatareassociatedwithsnapshots.

Toprepareandshrinkthevirtualdiskinitscurrentstate,firstusethesnapshotmanagertodeleteexisting

snapshots.Todiscardchangesmadesinceyoutookasnapshot,reverttothesnapshot.

To shrink a virtual disk

1 UsetheVMwareDiskMountutilitytomountavolumeofthevirtualdisk.TheVMwareDiskMount

utilityandtheVMwareDiskMountUsersManualareavailableontheVMwareWebsite.Changedirectorytothelocationofthevirtualmachine,forexampleWindows98,andrunvmware-mount:

cd C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\My Virtual Machines\Windows98

vmware-mount M: Windows98.vmdk

OnLinuxhosts,type:

vmware-mount /path/to/vmware/guest/Windows98.vmdk /mnt/win98

2 UseVirtualDiskManagertopreparethevolumeforshrinking.

OnWindowstypethiscommand,whereM:isthedriveletterwiththemountedvolume:

vmware-vdiskmanager -p M:

OnLinuxhosts,specifythemountpointinsteadofthedrive:

vmware-vdiskmanager -p /mnt/win98

Theprepareoperationzeroesoutunusedsectorssothatshrinkrecognizesthesesectorsasunusedspace.

3 UnmountthevolumeusingtheVMwareDiskMountutility:

vmware-mount /d M:

OnLinuxhosts,type:

vmware-mount -d /mnt/win98

4 Repeatthemounting,preparing,andunmountingstepsforeachvolumeofthevirtualdisk.

5 NowuseVirtualDiskManagertoshrinkthevirtualdisk:

vmware-vdiskmanager -k Windows98.vmdk