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Hard Disk Drive Management Parameters

This group of parameters is used to add and configure virtual hard disks in a virtual machine. The first syntax uses a file to emulate a hard disk drive. The second syntax connects a physical hard disk on the host server to the virtual machine.

Syntax

pctl set ID | VM_name { --device-add hdd | --device-set hddN }

[ --image name ]

[ --type expand | plain ][ --size number ][ --split ]

[ --iface sata | ide | scsi ][ --position number ]

[ --enable | --disable ]

pctl set ID | VM_name --device-add hdd

--device real_name

[ --iface sata | ide | scsi ]

[ --position number ]

Parameters

Name

Description

ID

The virtual machine ID.

VM_name

The virtual machine name.

--device-add

Adds a virtual hard disk drive to the virtual machine.

You can connect up to four SATA/IDE devices and up to seven SCSI devices to a virtual machine. This includes hard disks and optical disk drives.

--device-set

Modifies the parameters of an existing virtual hard disk.

hdd N

The name of the virtual hard disk to modify. Virtual hard disks are named using the hdd N format where N is the drive index number starting from 0 (e.g. hdd0 , hdd1 ). To obtain the list of disk names, use the pctl list command with the --info option.

--image name

This options is used to create a virtual hard disk using an image file. You can create a new image file or use an existing image.

  • To use an existing image file, specify its name and path using the name parameter.
  • To create a new image file, omit the --image parameter. New image files are created in the virtual machine directory and are automatically named using the harddisk N .hdd format, where N is the disk index number (e.g. harddisk0.hdd , harddisk1.hdd ).

--device name

This option is used to connect a physical hard disk on the Parallels Server to the virtual machine. You can obtain the names of the existing hard disks on the server using the prlsrvctl info command.

--type expand|plain

Sets the disk type for image file based virtual hard disks:

  • expand -- expanding disk. The image file is small initially and grows in size as you add data to it. This is the default virtual disk type.
  • plain -- plain disk. The image file has a fixed size from the moment it is created (the space is allocated to the drive fully). Plain disks perform faster than expanding disks.

--size number

The size of the virtual hard disk, in megabytes. The default size is 32,000 MB.

--split

Splits the hard disk image file into 2 GB pieces. You should split a virtual disk if it is stored on a file system that cannot support files larger than 2 GB (e.g. FAT16).

--iface sata|ide|scsi

The disk drive Interface type. If omitted, the SATA interface will be used.

--position number

The SCSI or IDE device identifier to be used for the virtual disk. The allowed ID ranges are the following:

  • for IDE devices: 0:0 , 0:1 , 1:0 , 1:1 ;
  • for SCSI device: 0:0 , 1:0 , 2:0 , 3:0 , 4:0 , 5:0 , 6:0 .

You can use one of the following formats for specifying IDs: ID : bus , ID - bus , ID . For example, if you specify 3:0 (or 3-0 or 3) as number for a SCSI drive, the guest OS will see the drive as having ID 3 on SCSI bus 0.

--enable

Enables the specified virtual disk drive. All newly added disk drives are enabled by default (provided the --disable option is omitted).

--disable

Disables the specified virtual disk drive. The disk drive itself is not removed from the virtual machine configuration.

Links

General Syntax , Virtual Device Management , Legend