Workstation User’s Manual
236 VMware, Inc.
Benefits of Using Virtual Disks
Inmostcases,itisbesttoconfigurevirtualmachinestousevirtualharddisksrather
thanphysicalharddisks.Avirtualdiskisafileorsetoffilesthatappearsasaphysical
diskdrivetoaguestoperatingsystem.Thefilescanbeonthehostmachineorona
remotecompu
ter
.Whenyouconfigureavirtualmachinewithavirtualdisk,youcan
installanewoperatingsystemontothevirtualdiskwithoutrepartitioningaphysical
diskorrebootingthehost.
Portability
Akeyadvantageofvirtualdisksistheirportability.Becausethevirtualdisksarestored
asfilesonthehostmachineoraremotecomputer,youcanmovethemeasilytoanew
locationonthesamecomputerortoadifferentcomputer.YoucanalsouseWorkstation
onaWindowshosttocreatevi
rtualdisks,movethemtoaLinuxcomputer,anduse
themwithWorkstationforLinux,andthereverse.See“MovingaVirtualMachine”on
page 223.
Disk Size and Files
Virtualdiskscanbeaslargeas950GB(IDEorSCSI).Dependingonthesizeofthe
virtualdiskandthehostoperatingsystem,Workstationcreatesoneormorefilesto
holdeachvirtualdisk.Thesefilesincludeinformationsuchastheoperatingsystem,
programfiles,anddatafiles.Thevirtualdi
skfileshavea.vmdkextension.
Bydefault,theactualfilesthatthevirtualdiskusesstartsmallandgrowtotheir
maximumsizeasneeded.Themainadvantageofthisapproachisthesmallerfilesize.
Smallerfilesrequirelessstoragespaceandareeasiertomovetoanewloc
ation.
How
ever,ittakeslongertowritedatatoadiskconfiguredinthisway.
Youcanalsoconfigurevirtualdiskssothatallofthediskspaceisallocatedwhenthe
virtualdiskiscreated.Thisapproachprovidesenhancedperformanceandisusefulif
youarerunningperformance‐sensitiveapplicationsinthevi
rtualmac
hine.
Regardlessofwhetheryouallocatealldiskspaceinadvance,youcanconfigurethe
virtualdisktouseasetoffileslimitedto2GBperfile.Usethisoptionifyouplanto
movethevirtualdisktoafilesystemthatdoesnotsupportfilesla
rgerthan2GB.
Lock Files
Arunningvirtualmachinecreateslockfilestopreventconsistencyproblemsonvirtual
disks.Withoutlocks,multiplevirtualmachinesmightreadandwritetothedisk,
causingdatacorruption.
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