A virtual machine needs at least one disk – that is, a disk to boot from and to run the operating system. Virtual disks can be part of a template, can be created as part of the virtual machine creation process, or can be created independently inside the storage repository. Virtual disks can be shared across virtual machines, or dedicated to one virtual machine. All virtual disks available in the storage repository appear in the Virtual Disks tab, regardless of how they are created.
In addition to the standard create and delete operations, Oracle VM Manager also allows you to rename a virtual disk, make it shareable, and resize it, provided the storage repository has sufficient disk space to offer the requested size.
To create a new virtual disk:
In the Home view click Server Pools in the navigation pane, then open the Repositories tab in the management pane.
Select the storage repository of your choice and open the Virtual Disks tab below.
Click Create... to open the Create Virtual Disk dialog box. Enter the following information in the fields:
Virtual Disk Name: A name for the virtual disk.
Size (GB): The size of the disk, in GB.
Description: A description of the virtual disk.
Shareable: Whether the virtual disk is shareable. Shareable disks have read/write privileges in multiple virtual machines and should be used with caution.
Click OK to create the new disk. It appears in the table.
To remove a virtual disk from the storage repository, select it and click Delete.
When you create a virtual machine from scratch, you are given the opportunity to either create a new virtual disk or use an existing one. The virtual disk you created above is available for selection. For more information about creating a virtual machine from scratch, see Section 7.7, “Creating a Virtual Machine”.
The pane to the right of the Virtual Disks table displays the virtual machine to which the selected virtual disk is attached.
To import a virtual disk:
In the Home view click Server Pools in the navigation pane, then open the Repositories tab in the management pane.
Select the storage repository of your choice and open the Virtual Disks tab below.
Click the Import Virtual Disk icon to display the Import Virtual Disk dialog box. Select an Oracle VM Server from the Server list to perform the import, and enter the URL to the virtual disk file you want to import.
Click OK to import the virtual disk file. When the import is complete, the virtual disk file appears in the table.
To edit a virtual disk:
In the table of the Virtual Disks tab, select the virtual disk you wish to edit.
Click Edit Virtual Disk to open the Edit Virtual Disk dialog box. Enter a new name for the selected virtual disk, a new size in GB, and optionally make it shareable. Click OK.
When resizing a disk there is always a risk of data corruption. Also, the file system on the virtual disk may not be aware of the resize operation, so you may have to run a certain procedure to make the guest aware of the change in disk size.