[PDF] Parallels Server 5 Bare Metal

Learning Parallels Server 5 Bare Metal Basics
Support of Virtual and Real Media
This section lists the types of disks that can be used by Parallels virtual machines and provides the
information about basic operations you can perform on these disks.
Supported Types of Hard Disks
Parallels virtual machines can use only virtual hard disks image files as their hard disks.
Virtual Hard Disks
The capacity of a virtual hard disk can be set from 100 MB to 2 TB.
Virtual hard disks can be of either plain or expanding format. When you create a virtual machine in
Express Windows or Typical mode (in the New Virtual Machine wizard), the disk is created in the
expanding format.
plain
expandin
g
Split disks
24
A plain virtual hard disk image file has a fixed size. The size is determined when the disk is
created. Plain disks can be created with the help of New Virtual Machine wizard (the Custom
mode.)
An expanding virtual hard disk image file is small initially. Its size grows as you add
applications and data to the virtual hard disk in the guest OS.
A virtual disk of either format can be a single-piece disk or a split disk. A split disk is cut into 2 GB
pieces and is stored as a single .hdd file.
CD/DVD Discs and Their Images
Parallels Server can access real CD/DVD discs and images of CD/DVD discs.
Parallels Server has no limitations on using multi-session CD/DVD discs. A virtual machine can play
back audio CDs without any limitations on copy-protected discs.
If your server has a recordable optical drive, you can use it to burn CD or DVD discs in a virtual
machine.
Parallels Server supports CD/DVD disc images in ISO, CUE, and CCD formats.
Floppy Disks and Floppy Disk Images
Parallels Server can use two types of floppy disks:
• Real diskettes inserted into a real floppy disk drive that is connected to the virtual machine.