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what is dynamically expanding image?

Posted: 27. Dec 2008, 17:06
by lcabcdefg
hi all:

I have installed the virtualbox, but I selected the dynamically expanding mode, when I was finishing, I found that ,the size of the hard disk could not changed as the manual said. doesn't the manual say that , if you selected the dynamically mode ,the size of hard disk would grow later? I don't know how can I let the size grow? so , help me ,, thank you ...

Posted: 27. Dec 2008, 17:24
by Simak
Hi!
Dynamically expanding mode does not mean that You can change the size of Your harddisk file later but instead that it will not allocate the full space for Your virtual harddisk in the host filesystem at the time of creation. An other name for such a dynamically growing file is "sparse image". You may want to check the term "thin provisioning" as well.

If You really need to be able to expand Your virtual harddisk later on You should give iscsi a try.

Posted: 28. Dec 2008, 14:01
by TerryE
See my tutorial All about VDIs.