I suppose this is more of a general Windows question than specific to Workstation, but have a question regarding the Windows pagefile.
We have a "master" Workstation Windows image that we pass out to our team on a regular basis and consists of a single virtual disk (C:\). To decrease the size of the image, I was wondering what the repercussions (if any) of the following scenario would be:
So essentially when step 4 happens, Windows is going to boot up and "see" a pagefile that it wasn't using before. Anyone see an issue with this? Does this make sense?
Thanks!!
Here is what I do instead. Configure a second virtual hard disk for the pagefile and for %TEMP% while making the second disk an independent non-persistent disk directly after partitioning/formatting but before you set the pagefile and %TEMP% to it. Then always pass along the complete Virtual Machine! By setting the second disk as independent non-persistent it's initial size is negligible and always reverts to an empty disk when the VM is shutdown however if/when necessary it survives a reboot or suspension and is not needlessly included when taking Snapshots. IMO it's the professional way to do what you're wanting to do!
Here is what I do instead. Configure a second virtual hard disk for the pagefile and for %TEMP% while making the second disk an independent non-persistent disk directly after partitioning/formatting but before you set the pagefile and %TEMP% to it. Then always pass along the complete Virtual Machine! By setting the second disk as independent non-persistent it's initial size is negligible and always reverts to an empty disk when the VM is shutdown however if/when necessary it survives a reboot or suspension and is not needlessly included when taking Snapshots. IMO it's the professional way to do what you're wanting to do!
Brilliant. You know, I've actually never used or have even familiarized myself with using independent non-persistent disks, but it sounds like I should read up on them as this seems to be the perfect solution for this.
Is it safe to assume you don't allocate all of the space up front?
Thanks!
Have a look at, Selecting the Virtual Hard Disk Type for a Virtual Machine and Exclude a Virtual Disk from Snapshots. (The later link points you to where the settings for the disk mode are.)