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  • 1.  How to update MBR partition table when creating VMDK from raw images

    Posted Dec 05, 2020 07:20 AM

    I am totally new to creating VMDK files, I would like to apologize in advance.

    I am trying to create a VMDK file from raw images . The MBR file provided to me indicates that the partition table has 2 partitions as shown in the fdisk result below:

    $ fdisk -l grub2.mbr.196M
    Disk grub2.mbr.196M: 1024 MiB, 1073741312 bytes, 2097151 sectors
    Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disklabel type: dos
    Disk identifier: 0x798ebfca

    Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
    grub2.mbr.196M1 * 2048 22527 20480 10M 83 Linux
    grub2.mbr.196M2 22528 401407 378880 185M 83 Linux

     

    To create my  desired VMDK file, I have 3 images:

    1) grub2.mbr.196M - the MBR file shown above

    2) img.boot - boot partition

    3) img.data - data section

     

    These 3 files will be dumped into a single image file:

    cat $TMPDIR/grub2.mbr.196Mr $TMPDIR/img.boot $TMPDIR/img.data > $image

    and then converted to VMDK later which will become a 2GB disk.

     

    My question is: how do I modify the MBR file only so that logical partition 2 (img.data) can have 1 GB of space using only CLI? The total physical space is 2GB so assume that extending that partition is ok. 

    The MBR file was provided to me as is but now I want to change the size of partition 2 because of my current project needs.

    Thanks so much in advance!

     



  • 2.  RE: How to update MBR partition table when creating VMDK from raw images

    Posted Dec 07, 2020 05:15 PM

    First of all - you do not need to convert your raw image to vmdk-format.

    Raw images are already usable as vmdks in ESXi - you just have to provide a descriptor-file. See
    http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk-howtos.html#calcgeoexample

    To update the MBR you can boot the VM with a LinuxLiveCD and use the command "growpart"