Create a differencing virtual hard disk in Virtual Server

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To create a differencing virtual hard disk

  1. Open the Administration Website.
  2. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Disks, point to Create and then click Differencing Virtual Hard Disk.
  3. In Location, select the folder in which to store the virtual hard disk file. If the folder you want does not appear in the list, you must type the fully qualified path to the folder in the following step.
  4. In Virtual hard disk file name, after the path to the folder, type a name for the differencing virtual hard disk that you want to create. You do not need to include a file name extension.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • In the Known virtual hard disks box in the lower section of the page, select the virtual hard disk file to use as the parent.
    • If the virtual hard disk file that you want does not appear in the Known virtual hard disks list, in Fully qualified path to parent virtual hard disk, type the fully qualified path to the virtual hard disk file.
  6. Click Create.

Warning

Use caution when creating or using a virtual hard disk on removable media such as an external hard disk. If you remove the media from the host operating system while a guest operating system is accessing data, data loss will occur.

Important

Before you attempt to use a differencing disk in a virtual machine, set the parent disk file to read-only and modify the virtual machine by replacing the parent disk with differencing disk. For more information, see "Using differencing disks" in Related Topics.

Note

To perform this procedure, you must have the appropriate permissions. If you do not have the appropriate permissions, you will either receive an error message or you will not be able to view certain menu items and options described in this procedure. To change your permissions, contact your Virtual Server administrator. For more information, see Securing Virtual Server. For instructions on opening the Administration Website, see "Open the Administration Website" in Related Topics. On the Virtual Server Paths page, you can configure Virtual Server to display paths in selection lists. For instructions, see "Configure Virtual Server search paths" in Related Topics.

See Also

Concepts

Open the Administration Website
Configuring Virtual Server search paths
Using differencing disks