Veeam replicating vmdk files from datastore

VEEAM REPLICATING VMDK FILES FROM DATASTORE HOW TO
VEEAM REPLICATING VMDK FILES FROM DATASTORE WINDOWS

Let me explain now why one needs resizing virtual disks. To learn more about virtual disk types, check out my previous article that discusses each of them in detail. I think that the image below perfectly reflects the whole concept of virtual disks. Neither VM nor physical datastore cares that much about whatвЂ™s going on inside that entity, meaning that they exist in different layers. *.vmdk file is just an abstraction existing between hardware and a VM. To understand better the whole magic behind reducing VMDK size, letвЂ™s discuss what a virtual disk is. LetвЂ™s take a closer look at the whole process of shrinking VMDKs

VEEAM REPLICATING VMDK FILES FROM DATASTORE HOW TO

In this article, IвЂ™ll discuss how to shrink virtual disks with 2 simple PowerShell scripts. And, you need to be really careful because unless done properly, reducing virtual disk size may cause data loss! Sure, you can just use VMware Converter to make a VMDK smaller, but, for my money, it is always better to have a script at hand. However, this process is a bit more cumbersome вЂ“ especially compared to what we just discussed above.While extending a VMDK file is a fairly easy task that can be performed right in Disk Manager, shrinking a virtual disk is a bit tricky. If you wish to maintain the use of a virtual RDM at the target location, it is possible to create a virtual RDM at the target location using the same size LUN, unregister (not delete from disk) the virtual machine to which the virtual RDM is attached from the vCenter Server inventory, and then use that virtual RDM as a seed for replication. Sure enough, the R: drive was there and the same folder and file were there. I powered on the virtual machine and looked for the folder and file I created on the R: drive. Examining the files in the target Virtual SAN datastore, we see the 200GB VMDK file. My target datastore was a Virtual SAN datastore.ДЄfter the initial replication sync completed, I recovered the virtual machine using vSphere Replication.

VEEAM REPLICATING VMDK FILES FROM DATASTORE WINDOWS

I logged out of Windows and went back to my vSphere Web Client to configure replication. I logged into the Windows virtual machine, configured the newly-added storage, formatted the volume with NTFS and made it the R: drive, and created a folder and a file on the new volume. However, we can see Hard disk 2 is mapped to a physical LUN at the bottom of the screen shot (you will not see that with a regular VMDK file). Notice the Disk File has a VMDK extension. We can see the RDM in virtual compatibilityВ mode, i.e., virtual RDM, below. I edited the configuration of the VM by adding an RDM disk (the unformatted 200GB LUN). I have a 200GB LUN mounted by my cluster of hosts, but I did not format the LUN with VMFS. I created a Windows virtual machine with a single VMDK for the C: drive. If you would like to see more details, keep readingвЂ¦ The next question I get is вЂњHow is the virtual RDM restored when recovered by vSphere Replication?вЂќ The answer is actually quite simple: It is recovered as a VMDK file at the target location. vSphere Replication does not support physical RDMs. The answer is yes, but only virtual RDMs. вЂњDoes vSphere Replication support the replication of RDMs?вЂќ In general, I recommend using VMDK files or Virtual Volumes, but there are certain benefits of RDM. For more information on RDM, please see the vSphere 6.0 Documentation Center. There are two types of RDM вЂ“ virtual RDM and physical RDM. Some vSphere administrators utilize a storage feature called вЂњraw device mappingвЂќ or RDM.

Veeam replicating vmdk files from datastore