Drive size for virtual machines

battlesebattlese Member Posts: 15 ■□□□□□□□□□
Hi everyone! I'm setting up my test box HP DL385 (Freebie!). Just wondering how big the disk size should be on the virutal machines. I'm sure I'll have a couple Server2008R2 and of course a few Win7 (and sprinkle in a couple XP boxes to do something for work). I have 2 72GB drives that I'll mirror and then about 5 146GB drives. I'd like to make them big enough so they'll do what I need but not so big that I'm just eating up space and drives that aren't necessary. Thanks!

Comments

  • demonfurbiedemonfurbie Member Posts: 1,819
    if you use virtualbox you can set your drives to dynamic size so they adjust themselves as needed

    if not id say just use the min for installation of the os rounded up to the nearest 10 gig, say windows 7 requires 16 gig id set the drive for 20 gig
    wgu undergrad: done ... woot!!
    WGU MS IT Management: done ... double woot :cheers:
  • EveryoneEveryone Member Posts: 1,661
    Look at the minimum requirements, and start there. 40 GB is recommended for 2008 R2. Nice thing with 2008 R2 is you can easily expand your drives on the fly. So if you don't give it enough space, you can always add more space to your VM, then expand the drive in Windows.
  • vColevCole Member Posts: 1,573 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Everyone wrote: »
    Look at the minimum requirements, and start there. 40 GB is recommended for 2008 R2. Nice thing with 2008 R2 is you can easily expand your drives on the fly. So if you don't give it enough space, you can always add more space to your VM, then expand the drive in Windows.

    Agreed. Also, if you're going with XP/Windows 2003 you can use gparted to easily expand the disk size.
  • EveryoneEveryone Member Posts: 1,661
    vCole wrote: »
    Agreed. Also, if you're going with XP/Windows 2003 you can use gparted to easily expand the disk size.

    Yes, gparted rocks... although you have to shutdown for a while to use it, which for a test lab shouldn't be an issue.
  • battlesebattlese Member Posts: 15 ■□□□□□□□□□
    I have it set up as esxi 5. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I wanted to make sure I didn't short myself and have to start all over again. Looks like I'll be able to expand it if necessary. I just didn't know how much it'll grow while going through the labs.
  • EveryoneEveryone Member Posts: 1,661
    Just use "Thin Provisioning" then to maximize your resources.
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