Managing Virtual Machine Disk Interfaces

By default, any virtual machine is created with a SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) virtual hard disk. If necessary, you can change the interface type of a disk from SATA to SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) or IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics). For example, to change the interface type of the default disk (hdd0) in the MyVM virtual machine from SATA to SCSI, you can run the following command:

# prlctl set MyVM --device-set hdd0 --iface scsi

The VM has been successfully configured

To check that the interface type has been successfully changed, use this command:

# prlctl list -i MyVM | grep hdd0

Boot order: hdd0 cdrom0 fdd0 net0

hdd0 (+) scsi:0 image='/var/parallels/VM_SCSI.pvm/harddisk.hdd' 65536Mb

The command output shows that now the interface type of the hdd0 disk is SCSI.

You can create additional disks for the MyVM virtual machine. For example, to add a new disk of the SCSI type to the virtual machine, execute the following command:

# prlctl set MyVM --device-add hdd --iface scsi

Creating hdd1 (+) scsi:1 image='/var/parallels/MyVM.pvm/harddisk1.hdd' 65536Mb

Create the expanding image file, 65536Mb...

The VM has been successfully configured.

You can also create an IDE disk. To do this, specify --iface ide instead of --iface scsi in the command above. If you omit the --iface option, a SATA disk is created by default.

The maximum number of devices (both virtual hard disks and CD/DVD-ROM drives) you can add to a virtual machine is given below:

• 4 IDE devices
• 6 SATA devices
• 15 SCSI devices

At any time, you can remove the hdd1 disk from the MyVM virtual machine:

# prlctl set MyVM --device-del hdd1

Remove the hdd1 device.

The VM has been successfully configured.

Notes:

1. Virtual SATA disks can be added to or removed from both running and stopped virtual machines while operations with IDE and SCSI disks can be performed on stopped virtual machines only. Virtual machines with Windows Server 2003 require SATA drivers for SATA disks to work.

2. You need to initialize a newly added disk before you can start using it. To initialize the disk, use standard means provided by your guest operating system.

3. For more information on the prlctl utility and its options, see the Virtuozzo 6 Command Line Reference Guide.