Modifying a Virtual Machine

 

 

How to Increase the Size of a VDMK File
The following steps will show you how to increase the size of a virtual machine’s C: drive and configure the guest operating system to see additional space.

  1. If the VMware vSphere Client is not already active, use it to log in to your VMware vCenter Server system.
  2. Go to Home > Inventory > VMs and Templates.
  3. Right-click virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings. The Virtual Machine Properties dialog box appears.
  4. In Hardware list, select Hard Disk 1.
  5. In Provisional Size, type 4GB and click OK.
  6. Select your virtual machine in inventory and click Storage Views tab. Note that it might be necessary to click the Update link in the upper-right corner of the pane.
  7. In the View list, select Show all Virtual Machine Files.
  8. Verify that the flat-vmdk virtual disk file has a size of 44GB. You might have to click the Update link in upper-right corner to refresh view.
  9. Increase the size of the disk from within the guest operating system:
    1. In the inventory, right-click your virtual machine and select Open Console.
    2. Use Windows Explorer to open the folder C:\dell\ExtPart folder.
    3. Double-click the extpart.exe file.
    4. In Volume to extend, type C:.
    5. In Size to expand the volume, type 2408 (to extend volume by 2,048MB).
    6. On the virtual machine desktop, double-click My Computer to verify that C: drive was extended.

 

 

 

How to Adjust Memory Allocation on a Virtual Machine
The following steps will show you how to increase the virtual machine’s memory.

  1. Right-click your virtual machine in the inventory and select Power > Shut Down Guest.
  2. Click Yes to confirm shutdown.
  3. After virtual machine has shut down, right-click it and select Edit Settings.
  4. Verify that Memory is selected in the Hardware list.
  5. Select MB from drop-down menu in upper-right of the Virtual machines properties dialog box.
  6. Immediately to the left of the drop-down menu, type 700.
  7. Click OK.
  8. To verify that the memory has increased, click the virtual machine’s Summary tab.

 

 

How to Rename a Virtual machine in the vCenter Server Inventory
Learn how to change the name of a virtual machine in inventory.

  1. In the inventory, right-click your virtual machine and select Rename.
  2. Rename the virtual machine to your desired name.
    *Caution: Renaming a virtual machine in the inventory does not change the name of the virtual machine files on the datastore. For example, if the virtual machine River02 is renamed to River02-09 in the vCenter Server inventory, the files on the datastore are still named River02.

    If you want to rename a virtual machine and all files belonging to the virtual machine, you must rename the virtual machine in the inventory and use VMware Storage vMotion to move the virtual machine to a different datastore.

 

 

 

How to Add a Raw LUN to a Virtual Machine and Verify It’s Visibility to the Guest Operating System
The following steps will show you how to add a raw logical unit number (LUN) to a virtual machine that is powered on, as well as verify that the guest operating system can see the new virtual disk.

  1. Add a raw LUN to your virtual machine:
    1. In the inventory, right-click your virtual machine and select Edit Settings. The Virtual Machine properties dialog box appears.
    2. In the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, click Add.
    3. When the Add Hardware wizard appears, enter the following:
      1. Select Hard Disk. (Device Type)
      2. Select Raw Device Mappings. (Select a Disk)
      3. Select your LUN. (Select Target LUN)
      4. Keep default datastore. (Select Datastore)
      5. Select Virtual. (Compatibility Mode)
      6. Leave the defaults. (Advanced Options)
      7. Click Finish. (Ready to Complete)
      8. When a new entry for the hard disk appears in the Hardware list with the word “(adding)” next to it, click OK to add the raw LUN.
  2. In inventory, right-click your virtual machine that you created and select Rename. Change the name to add RDM to the end of the current name.
  3. View the newly named virtual machine files:
    1. In the inventory, select your newly named virtual machine and click Storage Views tab.
    2. Click Update link.
    3. In drop-down menu, select Show all Virtual Machine Files.
    4. Verify that a new virtual machine file named <your newly named virtual machine> exists.
  4. To verify that the guest operating system can see the disk:
    1. Open console to virtual machine and log in as user Administrator.
    2. Select Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
    3. Click Disk Management.
    4. Verify that Disk 1 is listed. Disk 1 is the raw device mapping. You can now use the guest operating system utilities to format the drive.
    5. Close Computer Management window and close virtual machine console.

 

 

 

How to Expand a Thin-Provisioned Virtual Desk
This article will show you how to expand a thin-provisioned virtual disk to consume all the disk space that was allocated to it when it was created.

  1. 1. To inflate the thin-provisioned virtual disk:
    1. Go to Home > Inventory > Datastores.
    2. Right-click the datastore that you want and select Browse Datastore.
    3. Open the folder for your virtual machine.
    4. Right-click the .vmdk file and select Inflate. Wait for the operation to finish.
    5. Close Datastore Browser.