Contents

Choosing the Redo Log Directory

When you run a virtual machine on a disk that uses undoable or nonpersistent mode, VMware GSX Server stores all writes to the disk in a temporary file (called a redo log) on the host file system for the duration of the session. For disks in undoable mode, when the virtual machine is powered down, you have the choice to:

• Permanently apply all changes to the disk
• Discard the changes, thus restoring the disk to its previous state
• Keep the changes so that further changes from future sessions can be added to the log

The log file for a virtual disk called vm is called vm.vmdk.REDO. If the virtual disk is larger than 2GB, it is divided into sets of 2GB disk files named vm.vmdk, vm-02.vmdk, vm-03.vmdk and so on; its redo-log files are called vm.vmdk.REDO, vm-02.vmdk.REDO, vm-03.vmdk.REDO and so on.

You can choose the location where these redo logs are stored. By default, the redo logs for disks in undoable mode are stored in the same directory as the .vmdk file that contains the virtual machine configuration. Redo logs for disks in nonpersistent mode are stored in your host's temp directory by default. In the case of plain disks, the redo log vm.pln.REDO is created by default in the same directory as the .pln file).

By default, redo-log files for raw disks are located in the same directory as the virtual machine configuration file.

To set the location for the redo logs:

1. Connect to the virtual machine with a console. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off.
2. Select Settings > Configuration Editor from the console.
3. Click Misc.
4. Next to the Redo Log Directory field, click Choose and locate the directory where you want to store the redo logs.
5. Click OK.

Related Topics:

• Lock files used by virtual machines

Back to top

© 2001-2002 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.