Virtual machine settings

The following virtual machine settings can be configured.

Disks

Initial setting: the number and size of the source machine's disks.

The number of disks is generally equal to that of the source machine. It might be different if the software has to add more disks to accommodate the source machine volumes because of limitations set by the virtualization product. You can add virtual disks to the machine configuration or, in some cases, delete the proposed disks.

When adding a new virtual disk, along with interface and capacity, you can specify its format.

• Thin format. The disk occupies as much storage space as the data it stores. This saves the storage space. To enable thin format, select the Thin provisioning (for ESX), or Dynamically expanding disk (for Hyper-V) check box.
• Thick format. The disk occupies all the provisioned storage space. This improves the virtual machine performance. To use thick format, clear the Thin provisioning (for ESX), or Dynamically expanding disk (for Hyper-V) check box.

The default setting is thick format if a physical machine was backed up. When recovering from a virtual machine backup, the software tries to reproduce the format of the original machine's disks. If this is not possible, thick format is used.

Implementation of Xen machines is based on Microsoft Virtual PC and inherits its limitations: up to 3 IDE disks and 1 processor. SCSI disks are not supported.

Memory

Initial setting: if not contained in the backup, it is the default setting of the virtualization server.

This is the amount of memory allocated to the new virtual machine. The memory adjustment range depends on the host hardware, the host operating system and the virtualization product settings. For example, virtual machines may be allowed to use no more than 30% of memory.

Name

Initial setting: if not contained in the backup, New virtual machine.

Enter the name for the new virtual machine. If the backup was created by Agent for ESX(i) or Agent for Hyper-V, the software takes the name from the virtual machine configuration contained in the backup.

Processors

Initial setting: if not contained in the backup or if the backed up setting is not supported by the virtualization server, it is the default server's setting.

This is the number of processors of the new virtual machine. In most cases, it is set to one. The result of assignment of more than one processor to the machine is not guaranteed. The number of virtual processors may be limited by the host CPU configuration, the virtualization product and the guest operating system. Multiple virtual processors are generally available on multi-processor hosts. A multicore host CPU or hyperthreading may enable multiple virtual processors on a single-processor host.