Control Size of Split VMDK File

[nin28]

Is there any way to control how large the files are when you split a vmdk disk? So I would like to have a 1GB vmdk disk split into 200 MB files. Is this possible to control. Thanks.

[a_p_]

I'm not aware of a split disk size other than 2GB (sparse and/or preallocated). If you take a look at e.g. the help for vmware-vdiskmanager you will see the possible file virtual disk formats:

Disk types:
    0 : single growable virtual disk
    1 : growable virtual disk split in 2GB files
    2 : preallocated virtual disk
    3 : preallocated virtual disk split in 2GB files
    4 : preallocated ESX-type virtual disk
    5 : compressed disk optimized for streaming
    6 : thin provisioned virtual disk - ESX 3.x and above

André

[WoodyZ]

I don't know if this is technically supported nor do I think it's very practical however you asked, so...

vmware-vdiskmanager -c -a ide -s 200Mb -t 1 200MB-Segment-1000MB-Disk.vmdk
vmware-vdiskmanager -x 400Mb 200MB-Segment-1000MB-Disk.vmdk
vmware-vdiskmanager -x 600Mb 200MB-Segment-1000MB-Disk.vmdk
vmware-vdiskmanager -x 800Mb 200MB-Segment-1000MB-Disk.vmdk
vmware-vdiskmanager -x 1000Mb 200MB-Segment-1000MB-Disk.vmdk

Message was edited by: WoodyZ - Sorry, originally posted for 100MB segments.  Now set for 200MB segments.

[nin28]

Thanks for the help. The reason I'm trying to do this is because I want to backup the virtual disk and the account I have with my online backup provider, only accepts 200MB files. I guess I'll find out how it will perform. Thanks.

[continuum]

the split file-size can range between a few Mbs and 2 terrabytes

If you use preallocated split 200 Mb slices you will see no performance loss