VMware Workstation 6 on RHEL insists that available disk space is that of /, not of installation partition

[nkadel]

I'm finding that VMware Workstation 6.0.2 installed via RPM's on RHEL 5 will not allow me to create new disk images larger than the available space on the / partition, even if my VMware installations are actually on a separate and much larger partition. This is a serious bug, since unless you install your base OS with a very large / partition.

Does anyone know a workaround for this, other than rebuilding my system with a wastefully enlarged / partition? And does this occur with other VMware tools?

[AWo]

If you create a guest, lets say a small one, does it appear (the files) where you expect it (on this separate partition) or does it show up somewhere under "/"?

AWo

[nkadel]

If I create a mounted filesystem "/vmware", dedicated to my VMware images, the new disk images definitely show up in /vmware correctly. But I'm limited in creating new VMware disk images to the reported maximum available disk space of th server's "/" partition.

[Peter_vm]

Where do you have "/tmp"? On "/" partition?

You may then need to mount "/tmp" somewhere else or change VMware settings so they would point somewhere else.

[nkadel]

Why would /tmp be the limiting partition reported? I don't understand that at all

[Peter_vm]

VMware might use "/tmp" location to dump guests memory image.

[digihorse]

I'm having exactly the same issue on a 64bit OpenSuSE 10.3 system. VMWorkstation is absolutely refusing to acknowledge the configurations telling it to use a different partition. This was NOT the case in 5.5. What did they screw up? I suspect it IS the /tmp folder location... which is stupidity, as this it the default on any linux distro.

Are you 32bit or 64bit OS?

[nkadel]

I don't buy that it is a "/tmp" problem. /tmp is often a different partition altogether, and if it is on /, should most certainly not be used as a location to dump gigabytes of memory image. This looks like a serious bug in whatever tool is used to measure available disk space and the use of a hard-coded or mis-parsed "/" partition, instead of measuring the space of the mounted "/vmware" or other selected target partition for the VMware image.

If it were open source, I'd go hunting through the code. As it is, it looks like a very serious bug for people who want to set up large VMware images on a separate partition or separate removable disk, iscsi, or other network file system. And I'm laughing that when I contacted VMware about the issue, they sent me here instead of actually accepting a bug report.

[digihorse]

Well... so now they get two bug reports... and one pissed off phone call tomorrow. If this isn't resolved, I want the money back as the product is totally unsuitable for its purchased purpose.

[Peter_vm]

Please post "vmware.log" from guest directory on host.

[digihorse]

I realize you think you are being helpful. HOwever, your failure to actually read and understand the issue makes your above post silly at best. VMWorkstation is REFUSING to create the guest AT ALL!. Therefore, THERE IS NO DIRETORY AND NO LOG FILE TO POST!.

I've now downloaded and tried the tar.gz version as well... just to check that it wasn't something in the rpm... and its not. Its also not the /tmp mentioned above. Tried that as well. It is in fact a failure to recognize the "location" as specified in the setup for the guest OS.

[Kvasimongo]

Finally i found a thread about this problem!!!

Im having the exact same problem on Ubuntu 8.04. I have a root / file system which is fairly small (25gb) and a much larger volume /data which is about 130gb. When trying to install a guest machine im limited as to how much free space there is on the root / volume. This is very annoying, cause i cant expand my root / volume with the space from the /data volume. This is because /data is a shared drive that both Ubuntu and Vista can access.

A fix for this bug would be appreciated!!

[digihorse]

I'm so glad that another has piped up. I also can't believe that VMWare would so silly as to assume that a real admin had allowed an install to the whole drive, and not partitioned. ?:| I do hope they FIX this, as right now, i can't use the product. I have to create a VM in Server, and then move it over to the machine with Workstation. Slick... NOT!

[WinDBG]

In Windows Version, you can run vmware-vdiskmanager.exe to create VirtualDisk.vmdk, In linux, there is also some util. so can create it in console temporary

[nkadel]

The utility for VMWare Workstation is called 'vmware'. The configuration tools ignore the size of the designated target directory for disk images, and misreport the available space on the targeted directory as being only the available space on the '/' partition. It's frankly not a very good configuration tool, and has a lot of other problems.

This cannot be fixed by a Windows utility. It can be worked around by starting an installation with a small disk image, then manually using 'dd' to create a larger, empty disk image as desired. But it's a stupid bug, one that interferes with the most basic uses of the tool for any system that has a modestly ized '/' partition and has deliberately designated another partition for uses like, say, VMware.

[enganass85]

use a partion magic boot cd

insert it to ur cd bay, then on starting the VMware RedHat press esc and choose to boot from the CD. there u can resize the home partion (decrease it) and increase the size of ur root partion.