On 09/14/2010 06:29 PM, erstazi wrote: > On 09/14/2010 07:30 PM, JD wrote: >> On 09/14/2010 04:17 PM, erstazi wrote: >> >>> On 09/14/2010 03:30 PM, JD wrote: >>> >>>> On 09/14/2010 12:21 PM, Alexey Eremenko wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>> VMDK and VDI are just virtual disk containers. Two different formats, >>>>> like .JPG and .PNG pictures. >>>>> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>>>> Start uncovering the many advantages of virtual appliances >>>>> and start using them to simplify application deployment and >>>>> accelerate your shift to cloud computing. >>>>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/novell-sfdev2dev >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> VBox-users-community mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vbox-users-community >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Not so, young Grasshopper! >>>> >>>> See my reply to the OP. >>>> >>>> >>> Yes so, young grasshopper. >>> >>> http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch05.html#vdidetails >>> >>> VMDK is the de facto standard for the virtualization field. Originally >>> form VMware, it became standard with OVF. VMDK allows split hard drives >>> and even physical raw disk, which is what you are talking about. But it >>> is like Alexey mentioned, just like .JPG and .PN >>> >> Was the OP asking his question within the VMWare context? >> NO! >> He was asking within the VirtualBox context. >> In VBox, .vmdk extension is used for describing physical drives/partitions >> and .vdi extension is used to describe and hold storage for virtual drives. >> >> Here's the OP's original question: >> >> > I was looking around on an Ubunto 10.04 machine tha I use for a >> VirtualBox >> > host, and I discovered that some of the hard drive images for my VM's on >> > that machine are in .vmdk files, and others are in .vdi files. >> > >> > What's differetn about these 2 formats? >> >> Now, forfeit your move, do not collect $200, and go to Jail :) >> >> > And .vmdk's are also used to describe and hold storage for virtual > drives in VirtualBox. > VirtualBox supports any .vmdk from a VMWare environment without OVF. > Just the .vmdk alone will work within virtualbox. > > So the virtual hard disks that OP was seeing were in fact virtual > drives, *not* physical raw disks/partitions.
Look, you can NAME your Vbox disc with any name you want, including creating it with the extension .vmdk or .vdi or anything for that matter. The good thing about following conventions is you can tell the type of the disk by it's extension - and within virtualbox, it is a very useful convention. To wit, if you create a vdi disk and give the extension .vmdk: VBoxManage createhd -filename disc.vmdk --size 524288 --format vdi -register hides from view the the fact that it is a the actual file containing the virtual disk and not a descriptor file of a physical disc or partition. Similarly, VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename disk.vdi -rawdisk /dev/sdc -register hides from view the fact that disk.vdi is a descriptor of an actual physical disk. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Start uncovering the many advantages of virtual appliances and start using them to simplify application deployment and accelerate your shift to cloud computing. http://p.sf.net/sfu/novell-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ VBox-users-community mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vbox-users-community
