I have a MacOS VM on my cache drive that I'd like to move to an SSD via the Unassigned Devices plugin.

 

Is this possible without having to start all over? Any best practices?

Should be easy enough    Steps are basically:

• stop the VM
• copy any vdisks to their new location on the Unassigned Device
• Edit the VM settings (easiest in XML view) to adjust the paths for the vdisks you have just moved to point to their new location on the UD drive
• start the VM

that should be it

 

i suggested copying the vdisks rather than moving them to give you an easy fall-back position.    After you are happy the moved VM is working as expected you can then delete the copies from the cache disk.

Edited May 14, 20197 yr by itimpi

Sugest copying with cp --sparse=always, or risk the dest vdisk being much larger than source.

40 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Sugest copying with cp --sparse=always, or risk the dest vdisk being much larger than source.

I always wonder about whether it is better to run with sparse files or not!     The problem with sparse files is that the user can over-commit the disk space on the drive and then start wondering why VMs stop running properly as they run out of space.

 

Backing up the vdisk using sparse files makes more sense.  Can the cp command convert a non-sparse file to a sparse one?

2 minutes ago, itimpi said:

Can the cp command convert a non-sparse file to a sparse one?

Yep.

Just now, johnnie.black said:

Yep.

On that basis I would have thought that safest practise might to be to not have the live vdisks as sparse files, but make any backups as sparse files?

Just now, itimpi said:

On that basis I would have thought that safest practise might to be to not have the live vdisks as sparse files, but make any backups as sparse files?

I guess it depends on the use case, I have multiple VMs on the same device, and because they are all sparse I still have space for snapshots for a few days, of course I could also have smaller non sparse vdisks, but they would be prety close to maxed out and more trouble if needed to increase usage temporarily.