Install guest on a physical hard drive

[prontosystems]

Hi Community,

we want to test Linux running on a SSD drive. Is it possible to install a guest system on a physical hard drive if such a device is present?

Thx & Bye Tom

[WoodyZ]

Yes a Guest OS can be installed to a Raw Disk however you'll probably have to create the meta-data .vmdk manually using vmware-rawdiskCreator.  You might also need to manually edit the Virtual Machine's .vmx configuration file as well to add the meta-data .vmdk to the Virtual Machine.

[prontosystems]

Hi WoodyZ,

sounds good an thanks for the right interpretation of the term 'physical hard drive'. You are right, 'raw device' would be the correct term in this context.

Anyway, do you have a link to a manual or instruction sheet for the right settings to use a raw device in a guest system?

Thx & bye Tom

[WoodyZ]

Executing vmware-rawdiskCreator in a Terminal without any arguments will output the internal help with syntax.

[prontosystems]

Hi,

creating and using a RAW-device in a virtual machine works but now I've all the same a virtual disk seen by the operating system:

$ hwinfo --disk
48: SCSI 200.0: 10600 Disk                                      
  [Created at block.243]
  Unique ID: R7kM.nTPZhtpisM9
  Parent ID: 37TO.741NuwlerHD
  SysFS ID: /class/block/sda
  SysFS BusID: 2:0:0:0
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/host2/target2:0:0/2:0:0:0
  Hardware Class: disk
  Model: "VMware Virtual S"
  Vendor: "VMware,"
  Device: "VMware Virtual S"
  Revision: "1.0"
  Driver: "mptspi", "sd"
  Driver Modules: "mptspi"
  Device File: /dev/sda (/dev/sg1)
  Device Files: /dev/sda, /dev/block/8:0, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:10.0-scsi-0:0:0:0
  Device Number: block 8:0-8:15 (char 21:1)
  BIOS id: 0x80
  Geometry (Logical): CHS 7783/255/63
  Size: 125045424 sectors a 512 bytes
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (SCSI storage controller)

I'm not sure if I'm able to test how Linux deals with a SSD drive, if the TRIM command is reaching the controller and if the controller acts how described in it's specification.

Bye Tom

[WoodyZ]

Using an SSD as a Raw Disk .vmdk does not pass it off as an SSD to the Guest OS and you'll really only be able to use it as a Block Storage Device as the type specified by <adapterType> with  vmware-rawdiskCreator.

Message was edited by: WoodyZ - Changed info for vmware-vdiskmanager to vmware-rawdiskCreator.

[prontosystems]

Hi,

I used 'lsilogic' but not in the vmware-vdiskmanager Utilty but during creating the RAW-Device using the vmware-rawdiskCreator Utility. Anyway, than it looks like that my testlab must move to a physical machine, it's a pitty...

But for what is a RAW device usefull? What is the difference between a normal virtual Disk and a RAW-device? At the end both are virual disks and both are communicatiing via the host operating system (Mac OS) with the underlaying hardware, isn't it?

Thx & Bye Tom

[WoodyZ]

I used 'lsilogic' but not in the vmware-vdiskmanager Utilty but during creating the RAW-Device using the vmware-rawdiskCreator Utility. Anyway, than it looks like that my testlab must move to a physical machine, it's a pitty...

Sorry, I meant vmware-rawdiskCreator and have edited my previous reply.