Read-only disks in VMware

[patboyle]

I am working with VMware workstation 4.5.2 on Linux and have been trying to find a way to mount a raw-disk as read only for use by VMware guests.

I have replaced the "RO" with "RDONLY" per the vmdk spec, but when a user attempts a write in the guest OS, a pop-up window asks if this access should actually be enforced.

This is a secondary storage drive, and I want to let the guest(s) to be able to pull files from this drive but not be able to write.

Is there a way to disable this pop-up and have VMware simply enforce the access permissions I specified in the vmdk file for the raw disk?

Thanks,

Pat

[continuum]

I would recommend to switch to plan B:

instead of setting the disk to RDONLY either use the nonpersistent flag in the vmx-file or create a snapshot first and let users work with the snapshot.

Both results in the same effect - the rawdisk will not get changed.

[patboyle]

I'll try that out and let you know. Thanks!

-Pat

[patboyle]

Thanks again for the help. Making the disk non-persistent works as far as keeping the disk safe.

In a perfect scenario, I would have liked the disk to act like a write-protected floppy or folder similar to when permissions are set or the tab is switched so the user doesn't think he/she is writing to the disk.

Given that those features aren't available, hopefully I can implement something through the guest os to help give a little more notification so users aren't trying to store things on that disk.

Sorry for clicking the wrong button - post again and I'll give you the rest of the solution points.

-Pat

[continuum · Accepted solution]

Stupid forum-software - lost an answer - so this is 2. trial

I doubt if your guests will behave nice with finding their systemdisk in such a strange condition - hard-disks are supposed to be writeable - very likeley the OS will panic if its harddisk-drivers go on strike unexpectedly.

Played with the RDONLY flag a while - since then I either use nonpersistant or a snapshot - which boils down to be the same action.

With nonpersistant you just schedule a discard of the redolog as soon as the VM is pwered down.

[patboyle]

Thanks for the help. I hardened down the guest OS so the users will get notifications that they have no write priveliges. Also, since the raw disk is not writted to (just the tmp vmware file) even if a user attempts a write, I can protect the disk with the host security policy. Thanks again!