VMware Lab Manager 4.0, Руководство пользователя

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Lab Manager User’s Guide
98 VMware, Inc.
Understanding Virtual Machine Datastore Directories
When you move the pointer over a datastore name and select Context , Lab Manager displays a high ‐ level, tree
diagram of the virtual machine’s relationship to virtual machines on which it depends (ancestor nodes) and
that depend on it (child nodes). Each node in the tree represents a directory location on the datastore. Your
configuration files must live on the same datastore as the base. For example, if you have VM1 on DataStoreX,
all the configurations you create from VM1 must live on DataStoreX. You can copy this virtual machine as the
base template to other datastores.
Lab Manager creates nodes for operations such as linked cloning. When you create a linked clone of a virtual
machine, Lab Manager creates a delta disk, rather than copying the entire virtual hard disk. With each linked
clone operation, Lab Manager freezes the original delta disk and creates a new one. The virtual machine disk
consists of its own delta disk and the delta disks of ancestor disks. This series of disks represents the chain
length of a virtual machine.
Deleting a virtual machine deletes the storage occupied by the virtual machine node and ancestor nodes that
can be safely deleted.
Lab Manager does not delete an ancestor node in the following situations:

The ancestor directory has other child directories that depend on it.

A virtual machine (for example, a virtual machine template or virtual machine in the configuration
library) is associated with the ancestor node.

Another node is using the ancestor node as a revert point.
For example, a full clone operation might consolidate and create a new disk but refer to the revert point
of the original chain.
Figure 9 ‐ 1 shows a basic example of a tree of related virtual machines and the internal nodes affected by a
delete operation.
Figure 9-1. Example of Nodes Affected by a Delete Operation
If you delete node D, node B stays intact because node C and E depend on it. If you delete node E, the space
for node E and node C becomes available because the deletion affects all nodes up to a directory with child
dependencies (node B).
If you move the pointer over a box, details, such as the owner’s name, the configuration in which this virtual
machine is located, chain length, and the amount of space the virtual machine or internal node consumes, are
displayed. Previously deployed and currently deployed virtual machines display information about when
they were previously deployed. Internal nodes do not display this information.
A turquoise box indicates a revert reference, which means that another directory (created by a full clone
operation on a different datastore) exists outside the displayed directory tree but uses a directory linked to this
revert reference as a revert point. To delete a directory linked to a revert reference, you need to delete the
virtual machine associated with the revert reference and the descendants of the directory.
N
OTE
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, you can only view context diagrams using the
Compatibility View. To access this view, in Internet Explorer, select Tools > Compatibility View .
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