Yes. I was referring to the compression ratio between the space actually taken up on the disk by a given VM and the size of the tgz file once all the files have been zipped up. The allocated size of the virtual disk within VMWare isn't useful in this context as its contents are too varied.
J Kevin Anderson wrote: > This will depend on how the VM was initially created. > > If you have a 10 Gig VM disk, with 1 Gig of data, You're essentially > only compressing 1G. The 9 free Gigs will be collapsed completely. So > ratios look wicked. On the other hand, if your disk grows as needed, > and you have 10 Gig of data in a 10 Gig disk, then compression will be > lower as you're needing to compress the whole 10 Gig. So the ratio > looks better. > > Same if you create a test file. If you add 2 lines of random text, and > then 400 Gigs of AAAAAAA, compression will be wicked. The 2 lines are > compressed, and then it basically says "and add 1 jazillion capital As > at the end." Empty space in a VM works the same, so compression ratios > for the free space are almost 100%. > > Kev. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:31 AM > To: CLUG General > Subject: Re: [clug-talk] Workshop plans > > Gustin Johnson wrote: >> A poor mans snapshot is simply making a physical copy of the VMs >> directory. This can be cumbersome to work with, as well as taking up >> tons of disk space. > > I've actually found that VMs are uber-compressible. I don't think I've > ever seen less than 50% compression and frequently more. Granted I > generally work with small VMs as I try to keep the data separate out on > the metal, but most of my VMs are under a GB when gzipped. > > J > > -- > Key fingerprint: BDE0 DE52 B8C0 0CDF 7653 E5A2 D861 7877 0D3B 813E > http://www.jonwatson.ca > +1.403.770.2837 > > "Trying to learn to hack on a DOS or Windows machine or under MacOS is > like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body cast" - ESR > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying -- Key fingerprint: BDE0 DE52 B8C0 0CDF 7653 E5A2 D861 7877 0D3B 813E http://www.jonwatson.ca +1.403.770.2837 "Trying to learn to hack on a DOS or Windows machine or under MacOS is like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body cast" - ESR _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
