VMware file Format Learning && use VHD file to Boot VMWare

Directory

1 . Virtual Machine Introduce2. Vmware Image File Format3. VHD File Format4. Convert VHD File into VMDK5virtual in VMware Workstation

1. Virtual Machine Introduce

A virtual Machine (VM) Shares physical hardware resources with other users but isolates the operating system or Applicatio N to avoid changing the end-user experience.

A virtual Machine (VM) are an operating system OS or application environment that's installed on software which imitates D edicated hardware. The end user has the same experience in a virtual machine as they would having on dedicated hardware.

Vm diff from Physic Machine

 virtualized computers they load and Execute hundreds or thousands of individual files, including operating -system Kernel files, device drivers, application components and data files.  2 . Virtualization abstracts the Software from  the underlying hardware and puts all the constituent data for  a given virtual  Machine (VM) in  a single disk file. The disk file is  essentially a complete and independent virtual  machine. 

Relevant Link:

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-machinehttp://  Whatis.techtarget.com/fileformat/vmdk-virtual-machine-disk-file-for-vmware-virtual-machines

2. Vmware Image File Format

1. VMX: Virtual machine name. VMX stores the primary configuration file for the virtual machine settings. If the virtual machine was created with a previous version of Workstation on a Linux host, the file extension may be. CFG2.. log: Virtual machine name. log or Vmware.log primary log file. If you need to troubleshoot a problem, you can refer to the file. The file is stored in the same directory as the. vmx file3.. nvram: Virtual machine name. nvram or Nvramnvram file for storing the status of the virtual machine BIOS. The file is stored in the same directory as the. vmx file4.. vmdk1virtual machine name. VMDK Virtual Disk file, which is used to store the contents of the virtual machine hard drive. These files are stored in the same directory as the. vmx file. A virtual disk is comprised of one or more virtual disk files. The virtual machine sets the name of the first file in the display set.    The file contains pointers to other files in the set. If you specify that all disk space is allocated when the virtual disk is created, the files will initially be the largest size and will no longer grow. Almost all of the content in the file is virtual machine data. A small subset of files are allocated for virtual machine overhead if the virtual machine is connected directly to a physical disk, the virtual disk file stores information about the accessible partition of the virtual machine2) Virtual machine name-S###.VMDK If the specified file size can be increased, the file number portion of the filename will contain an S, for example, Windows7-S001.VMDK. If you specify that the virtual disk be split into2GB size files, the number of files depends on the size of the virtual disk. As data is added to the virtual disk, each file can be extended to a maximum of2GB3) Virtual machine name-F###.VMDK If disk space is allocated when the disk is created, the file name will contain an F, for example, Windows7-F001.VMDK4) Virtual machine name-disk-###.vmdk If the virtual machine has one or more snapshots, there will be some redo log files. These files store changes made to the virtual disk during the virtual machine run. # # # Represents a unique suffix added by Workstation to avoid duplicate file names5. Vmem1) Uuid.vmem The virtual machine paging file, which is used to back up the client main memory on the host file system. The file exists only if the virtual machine is running or has failed.    It is stored in the working directory. 2the snapshot name and number. Vmem each snapshot that has the virtual machine turned on has an associated. vmem file that is saved as part of the snapshot that contains the main memory of the guest operating system6.. VMSD: Virtual machine name. VMSD the file used to centrally store snapshot-related information and metadata. It is stored in the working directory7.. vmsn: Virtual machine name. Snapshot.vmsn snapshot state files that store the running state of a virtual machine when taking a snapshot. It is stored in the working directory8. VMSS: Virtual machine name. VMSS a pending state file that stores the status of the suspended virtual machine. It is stored in the working directory9. Other files, such as locked files, may also be stored in the virtual machine directory. Some files appear only while the virtual machine is running

Relevant Link:

http://pubs.vmware.com/workstation-10/index.jsp?topic=%2fcom.vmware.ws.using.doc% 2fguid-a968ef50-ba25-450a-9d1f-f8a9dee640e7.htmlhttps://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ Ws_learning_files_in_a_vm.htm

3. VHD File Format

The Virtual hard Disk (VHD), format is a publicly-available image format specification that allows encapsulation of the Har D disk into an individual file for use by the operating system as a virtual disk in all the same ways physical hard disks is used. These virtual disks is capable of hosting native file systems (NTFS, FAT, ExFAT, and UDFS) while supporting standard disk and file operations. VHD API support allows management of the virtual disks. Virtual disks created with the VHD API can function as boot disks.

VHD files is used in

1. hyper-V273. Virtual Server4. Windows Virtual PC

These products with the VHD API to contain the Windows operating system image utilized by a virtual machine as its system B Oot disk.

Summary

1. User Mode Native Windows APIs:1) VirtDisk.dll:Common Library forVHD Management APIs.2. User Mode domain:specific Management Wrappers1) VDS VHD Apis:vds Object Model wrappers forThe VHD for Windows APIs.3. Kernel Mode Drivers:1) VDrvRoot.sys:RootVirtualDrive Enumerator. 2) FsDepends.sys:Nested volume dependency management. 3) Vhdmp.sys:VHD Parser and dependency property provider.

Relevant Link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/library/windows/desktop/dd323654 (v=vs.85). aspx

4. Convert VHD File into VMDK

Virtual PC uses its own virtual disk image format called virtual hard disk (. vhd file extension) that stores file system, Operating system data, users files and folders like on Physical disk. VHD format is also used by Microsoft backup applications and Windows Server operating systems.

We need to convert this VHD file to a VMware-compatible format and load it onto VMware

0x1:download, INSTANLL Winima

http://www.winimage.com/download.htm

0x2:convert

Select:convert Virtual hard Disk image.

Select:create Fixed Size Virtual Hard Disk

Select, Safe as:vmware VMDK (*VMDK), select target location and type the new (. VMDK) file name

Conversion complete

0x3:create A VM with converted VMDK File

We have finished converting the CoreOS VHD file to a vmdk file, but we know that this vmdk is a virtual disk file and not a virtual machine that can be started directly. In this VMDK file, the main program for boot boot CoreOS is included.

Next you can create a new VM and mount the VMDK image file

Relevant Link:

http://blog.vmpros.nl/2012/02/21/vmware-convert-vhd-to-vmdk-with-winimage/http://  www.file-extensions.org/article/run-virtual-pc-machines-in-vmware-workstationhttp://  www.sqlpanda.com/2012/04/run-windows-2008r2-vhd-under-vmware.html

In addition, you can create a new VM directly using the tool based on a VHD

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/?PID=6146957&PubCID=2470763

5. Run Virtual PC virtual machine in VMware Workstation

VMware also supports booting directly with VHD files

0x1: Setting up Intel Vt-x

If the VM image you want to mount is a 64-bit operating system, I need to turn on the CPU's vt-x switch and set it up in the boot BIOS

http://www.jianhui.org/his-host-supports-intel-vt-x-but-intel-vt-x-is-disabled-issue.html

0x2: Creating a 64-bit Linux 2.6.x operating system

Create a VM with VMware Wizard without operating system ISO file, without operating system in ISO, booting with operating system on our mounted virtual hard disk

0x3: Mount a VHD file on a new VM

0x4: Run

Once the VM is created, and the VHD is mounted, you can start VMware directly

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VMware file Format Learning && use VHD file to Boot VMWare