VMDK

Virtual Machine Disk Format
Filename extension .vmdk
Developed by VMware
Type of format Disk image file
Website developercenter.vmware.com/web/sdk/55/vddk

VMDK (short for Virtual Machine Disk) is a file format that describes containers for virtual hard disk drives to be used in virtual machines like VMware Workstation or VirtualBox.

Initially developed by VMware for its virtual appliance products, VMDK is now an open format[1] and is one of the disk formats used in the Open Virtualization Format for virtual appliances.

The maximum VMDK size is generally 2TB for most applications, but in September 2013, VMware vSphere 5.5 introduced 62TB VMDK capacity.[2]

Support

All VMware virtualization products support VMDK; this includes VMware Workstation, Workstation Player, Server, Fusion, ESX, ESXi and all software plus service offerings that incorporate them.

Third-party software that support VMDK include:

Virtual disk provisioning options

  • thin: Blocks are not allocated or zeroed during initial provisioning. Block allocation and zeroing is performed at first access.
  • zeroedthick: Blocks are allocated during initial provisioning but are not zeroed until first access.
  • eagerzeroedthick: Blocks are allocated and zeroed during initial provisioning.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Virtual Disk Format 5.0" (PDF). VMware.
  2. ↑ "vSphere 5.5 Storage Enhancements Part 1: 62TB VMDK". CormacHogan.com. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  3. ↑ "Parallels Announces Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac". www.parallels.com.
  4. ↑ "Oracle and Sun Microsystems - Strategic Acquisitions - Oracle" (PDF). www.sun.com.
  5. ↑ "Chapter 5. Virtual storage". www.virtualbox.org.
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