Virtual Disk Development Kit

 View Only

  • 1.  creating a vmdk file of a physical disk

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 02:32 AM

    I'm just getting into the VDDK. I want to create a VMDK file that is a replication of my physical drive, much like the VMWare p2v converter does.

    Can that be achieved using the VDDK? Or does the VDDK just allow me to create the VMDK file and write to it?

    Do I still have to write the kernel level code that can read the entire physical drive into the VMDK?



  • 2.  RE: creating a vmdk file of a physical disk

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 08:58 PM

    VDDK allows you to create a VMDK file and write to it. You can use either VIX or VI SDK to create and configure the target VM's that are 'equivalent' to your physical machine.

    Regarding the need for kernel components, it depends on what you want to do: for a backup application that requires the physical machine to boot with a CD, most likely, no kernel code development is needed. If you want to do a P2V of a live machine, you may need some kernel mode development.

    Simply opening a physical drive and reading from it does not need you to develop kernel mode components (but does need elevated priveleges)

    -Sudarsan



  • 3.  RE: creating a vmdk file of a physical disk

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 03:16 AM

    Sorry - I'm not sure what you mean by "you can use either VIX or VI SDK to create and configure the target VM's that are 'equivalent' to your physical machine"

    Are they different SDK's?

    Can I distribute those with my application?

    Is there a guide anywhere to how I can use the VDDK to create an image of my system?

    Should I just create a VMDK file and then read my physical drive sector by sector and write it into the VMDK?



  • 4.  RE: creating a vmdk file of a physical disk

    Posted Apr 02, 2009 10:02 PM

    Try this...

    Use vmware-rawdiskCreator as per[this community post|http://communities.vmware.com/message/968685;jsessionid=B2B26696CB5FE0AC96BE4EE367ABAF0C].

    That will create a virtual disk file that you can use to boot into a virtual machine using the windows install on your external drive.

    Once you've booted in to your VM, use the VMWare Converter tool to create a VMWare Consolidated Backup file of the windows instance. Note: you must run this EXE from within the guest OS.

    Then follow the remaining instructions to convert the backup file into a new VM.



  • 5.  RE: creating a vmdk file of a physical disk

    Posted Dec 30, 2011 09:19 AM

    Hello I use VMvare Workstation, and I want ad individual partition to VMDK. But I get everytime: partition table error, when starting emulation, before mine Linux started.

    I seen this in VirtualBOX:

    On Linux or FreeBSD host the parameter -relative causes a VMDK file to
    be created which refers to individual partitions instead to the entire
    disk.

    And VB can do -mbr for another file. So what can I do, if I want individulal partition give to VMW?