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Re: vdiskmanager GUI

30. Aug 21, 2007 5:46 AM in response to: ludloff
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
There is no built-in tool to decrease the maximum size of a virtual disk. You need to manually create a 2nd, smaller disk; attach it to your guest; run a disk imaging utility inside the guest to transfer all the bits to the new disk; then swap the disk (make sure it is active) to be the 1st disk and remove the original disk; if the guest boots successfully, you can then delete the original larger disk.

Re: vdiskmanager GUI

31. Aug 21, 2007 8:12 AM in response to: tsubasa168
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shshjun
75 posts since
Feb 16, 2006
Hopefully, this functionality will be incorporated
into the next release of fusion! Love the ability to
resize without needing to resort to the command line!

i didn't bother to check the license or usage yet, i believe it's great, but my understanding is this is a community tool and not from VMWARE. is this correct?

Eric, will you be willing to allow VMWARE take this into fusion?

thank again. i'd try it sometime later. --ss

Re: vdiskmanager GUI

32. Aug 21, 2007 8:29 AM in response to: shshjun
Click to view etung's profile Guru
etung
11,086 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
i didn't bother to check the license or usage yet, i
believe it's great, but my understanding is this is a
community tool and not from VMWARE. is this correct?

Yes. This tool was written on my own time using only publicly-available information. VMware does not support this.

Eric, will you be willing to allow VMWARE take this
into fusion?

It'd be fine with me, but the program really doesn't do that much - it's mostly writing a GUI, which you can't exactly cut-and-paste into another program. It'd probably be cleaner/easier/faster for the developers to re-implement it.

Re: vdiskmanager GUI

33. Aug 23, 2007 3:34 PM in response to: ludloff
Click to view itzac's profile Lurker
itzac
2 posts since
Sep 10, 2006
You can create a second, smaller disk and copy the data to it. I've used the Ubuntu 7.04 Desktop live CD to do this. Just mount the iso and boot the VM. You can then use gparted to copy partitions over. Remember to mark the boot partition as active. Then remove both disks, and add the new disk as an existing VDisk to the first IDE or SCSI channel.

The other option is a little tougher, and really only suitable if you're shrinking the disk size by about 2GB. The disk needs to be of type 3 (preallocated 2GB files), and you're going to need to manually edit the vmdk file by hand. Finally, you're going to need to do a little math.

At this point you need to ask yourself if it's faster and more feasible to copy the data or allocate and zero all of the empty space in your existing virtual disk. I also don't guarantee that this will work perfectly. I haven't tested to make sure I can write all the way to the end of the virtual disk.

Let me know if you still want to try this method.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

34. Sep 2, 2007 6:04 AM in response to: etung
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encoded_9
3 posts since
Mar 23, 2007
Hello etung,

I just tried to expand my vmdisk of Windows2000 from 8GB to 15GB.
Then I couldn't do it and saw the following message,
------------------------------------------------------------------
Using log file /var/tmp//vmware-yoshi/vdiskmanager.log
Failed to expand the disk '/Users/yoshi/VirtualMachines/Windows2000.vmwarevm/Windows2000.vmdk': The file already exists (41).
------------------------------------------------------------------
What does it mean ? And how can I expand my vmdisk ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

35. Sep 2, 2007 7:19 AM in response to: encoded_9
Click to view Phuongca's profile Enthusiast
Phuongca
32 posts since
Jul 12, 2007
hello. this is fantastic tool.
however, i would like to know if this means i can add a secondary virtual hard-drive to my VM? it would be very useful/helpful if that's possible.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

36. Sep 2, 2007 10:16 AM in response to: encoded_9
Click to view etung's profile Guru
etung
11,086 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
The output file can't already exist; e.g. you can't expand in place.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

37. Sep 2, 2007 10:18 AM in response to: Phuongca
Click to view etung's profile Guru
etung
11,086 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
i would like to know if this means i can add
a secondary virtual hard-drive to my VM?

You can, and you don't even need this tool to do it! Make sure the virtual machine is powered off, go under Settings for the virtual machine, and click the plus button in the lower left. Choose to add a new virtual hard drive, enter your settings, and done.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

38. Sep 2, 2007 10:47 AM in response to: etung
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modular747
45 posts since
Mar 29, 2007
If a snapshot is taken when using a fixed size virtual disc, a new "expandable" disc is created which rapidly becomes highly fragmented on the OS X disc (>6000 fragments per iDefrag in my case). Is there a way to convert the secondary vd to a fixed size to avoid this fragmentation without deleting the snapshot?

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

39. Sep 2, 2007 12:54 PM in response to: modular747
Click to view etung's profile Guru
etung
11,086 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
I don't think you can do this; at least my 30-second experiment failed. I converted the child disk to preallocated, fixed the parentCID, and pointed the vmx at the new child disk. It failed to power on. I suspect that unlike a sparse disk, a preallocated disk doesn't have information about when to refer back to the parent disk, so you can't use it for a snapshot.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

40. Sep 2, 2007 2:43 PM in response to: etung
Click to view modular747's profile Enthusiast
modular747
45 posts since
Mar 29, 2007
This snapshot system which creates an active non-configureable child virtual disc seems to have significant limitations. It's suitable only if the snapshot is created to temporarily test a new configuration and then be incorporated or deleted, discarding the child vd. It also seems to make it impractical to have multiple snapshots with a snapshot manager as in Parallels.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

41. Oct 24, 2007 3:22 PM in response to: modular747
Click to view dcpc's profile Novice
dcpc
12 posts since
Oct 24, 2007
Hi:

I am trying to expand my virtual hard disk using the GUI tool. I found vmdk files in this directory: /Users/david/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Home Edition.vmwarevm/

There are five files of this type. Four have names such as 'VMWare Windows-000001-s001.vmdk' and one is named 'VMWare Windows-000001.vmdk'. If I choose the latter file, the result is as follows:

Using log file /var/tmp//vmware-david/vdiskmanager.log
Failed to get geometry: The called function cannot be performed on partial chains. Please open the parent virtual disk (5).

If I choose any of the first four, the result is as follows:

Using log file /var/tmp//vmware-david/vdiskmanager.log
The file '/Users/david/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Home Edition.vmwarevm/VMWare Windows-000001-s002.vmdk' appears to be a sub-component of a virtual disk.
Did you mean '/Users/david/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Home Edition.vmwarevm/VMWare Windows-000001.vmdk'?
Failed to open disk '/Users/david/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Home Edition.vmwarevm/VMWare Windows-000001-s002.vmdk' : The file specified is not a virtual disk (16).

Could you please point me in the right direction here? How do I expand my disk? Thanks.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

42. Oct 24, 2007 3:30 PM in response to: dcpc
Click to view modular747's profile Enthusiast
modular747
45 posts since
Mar 29, 2007
You probably have an active snapshot of your VM. You can't expand a vhd if there's a snapshot - you have to revert to or discard it first.

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

43. Oct 25, 2007 7:09 PM in response to: modular747
Click to view dcpc's profile Novice
dcpc
12 posts since
Oct 24, 2007
Thanks. So, discarding the snapshot from within Fusion should allow me to expand the hard disk?

Re: New version: 0.2007.06.18

44. Oct 25, 2007 7:57 PM in response to: dcpc
Click to view modular747's profile Enthusiast
modular747
45 posts since
Mar 29, 2007
Yes, as long as it was created as expandable and not fixed size to begin with.
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