replica vmdk file increasing in size

[DForneiro]

Hi all,

I wanted to know whether anyone else has encountered this problem. I have a standard windows XP image with standard apps like Office 2003, Adobe Reader, antivirus, etc. Since deploying 4 virtual machines from View Composer i have realised that the size of the replica vmdk file in each of the virtual machines has gone larger(one virtual machine went from 1.5 GB to about 2.8GB) All virtual machines have a differently sized replica vmdk file, the commonality being they have all increased in size. I wanted to know whether its the applications im using in the snapshot that are making the significant increase. Is there a specific/different way I need to configure a master image/snapshot for View Composer?Is there a way to avoid further increase to the replica vmdk file?

Thanks

DForneiro

[lbourque]

It's possible. Have you refreshed it to ensure that it's not something else?

[DForneiro]

Hi lbourque,

Im not sure what you mean by refreshed it. If you mean refeshing the datastores then yes. This is how i was able to see the change in size to the replica vdmk file. Today, i have found it has increased again. Should I be adding applications like Outlook? From what i know all virtual machines created by the master image snapshot are linked, so a change in one virtual machine will affect all virtual machines. Can you let me know if this is the case? If it is, then adding an application such as Outlook, that downloads emails to the client, may be the cause. Are there any other suggestions as to why the increase in file size?

Thanks

DForneiro

[lbourque]

Not the datastore but the linked clone itself should be refreshed. If you go into View Manager --> Desktops and Pools --> Select the linked clone and the choose --> Edit Image. In there you will see an option to refresh, which should refresh the OS disk down.

[DForneiro]

Thanks for that

Ill try it out later today and let you know the result.