Hyper-V VHD question

[Philj]

Hi All

I've just setup a Hyper-V server at home. When I create a VM, the default hard drive size is something like 127GB even though the physical hard drive is only 50GB.

How do I get Hyper-V to use every last MB of the physical drive and show the actual drive size in the VM? Is it just a case of manually altering the drive size when creating the VM or is there a better way of doing this?

I know this may sound like a stupid question but I don't want any unused space on the physical drive because they're only 50GB.

Or...should I not bother with VHDs and connect to the physical drive?

Cheers

Phil

 

[MysticRyuujin]

If you want the VM to use the HDD in its entirety and have its physical size represented in the VM then you'd probably want to do pass through.

Another option would be to get the exact HDD size and then use power-shell to create the VHD and specify the exact size.

 

[jchawk]

Its really up to you. You could set the drive as offline and pass through to vm., part of the value of virtual guests are easy manipulation of the vhds. You could just leave as thin provisioned and then move to a bigger his when you get one

 

[Biznatch]

Hi All

I've just setup a Hyper-V server at home. When I create a VM, the default hard drive size is something like 127GB even though the physical hard drive is only 50GB.

How do I get Hyper-V to use every last MB of the physical drive and show the actual drive size in the VM? Is it just a case of manually altering the drive size when creating the VM or is there a better way of doing this?

I know this may sound like a stupid question but I don't want any unused space on the physical drive because they're only 50GB.

Or...should I not bother with VHDs and connect to the physical drive?

Cheers

Phil

The default in hyperV is a dynamic disk. The 127GB is the max size it can reach, but the file itself is only the size of the data. This can lead to performance issues if you have multiple dynamic VHDs on the same disk. As they expand, those bits get placed on free space on the drive, which make the data on the drive very fragmented.

What you are looking for is a static VHD. This will create a file that is the size you set it. So if you make a 200GB static disk, it will be a 200GB file.

 

[Ryan45]

You created a dynamic disk, you'll want to used fixed for best performance and to use all of the space right away

 

[Grentz]

You also will not want to use the ENTIRE drive as you may have some performance issues. Leave a bit of free space.