Information:
You should add an additional hard drive to an existing Windows 2003 or XP OS then configure the proper storage block alignment on the new disk. You can then remove the new disk from the existing Windows 2003 or XP OS and use it as the basis of all new Windows operating systems in VMWare ESX.
This solution involves many high level activities, please read the documents mentioned in the Related Articles section for more information on certain activities.
1) Open the VI Client and connect to VirtualCenter (or ESX host)
a. Select an existing Windows 2003 or XP guest OS
b. Add an additional hard drive selecting the following options
i. Create new virtual disk
ii. Select the disk capacity (10-20GB)
iii. Specify a datastore
1. DO NOT store with the virtual machine
2. Make note of which datastore this virtual machine is created on.
iv. Accept default SCSI ID
2) Log into the Windows 2003 or XP guest OS
a. Open a Command Prompt
i. Type the following commands
ii. diskpart
1. rescan
2. list disk
3. select disk #
a. Where # is the newly added disk
4. create partition primary align=64
b. Click Start….Run
i. Type the following command
ii. msinfo32
c. Verify that the partition offset of the new disk is properly aligned to 64K
d. Logoff and shutdown the Windows 2003 or XP guest OS
3) Using the VI Client
a. Remove the newly added hard drive from the Windows 2003 or XP guest OS using the following options.
i. Remove from virtual machine
1. DO NOT delete the files from the disk
b. Power on the Windows 2003 or XP guest OS
c. Browse to the datastore where the new disk was created.
i. You should find a new folder with the same Virtual Machine (VM) name as the Windows 2003 or XP guest OS.
ii. Rename the folder to NewBootDrive
iii. This folder and VMDK file should be saved so the vmdk file can be copied to future Windows VMs as well.
4) Using an SSH session to the ESX Host
a. Rename the vmdk file using vmkfstools
i. Change to the datastore and folder
1. Cd /vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/NewBootDrive
a. Where [datastore] is the name of the datastore without brackets
ii. vmkfstools –E current_filename.vmdk newbootdrive.vmdk
1. The “-flat” file will automatically be renamed to match.
5) Using the VI Client
a. Create a new Virtual Machine using the New Virtual machine wizard
i. Select the appropriate options
ii. Do not power on the VM
6) Using an SSH session to the ESX Host
a. Using vmkfstools copy the NewBootDrive/newbootdrive.vmdk file to the new Virtual Machine directory, delete the current hard drive and rename the newbootdrive.vmdk file.
b. Change to the new Virtual Machine folder on the appropriate datastore
i. Cd /vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/[vm_name]
1. Where [datastore] is the name of the datastore without brackets
2. Where [vm_name] is the name of the new virtual machine without brackets
c. Copy the NewBootDrive/newbootdrive.vmdk file to the new Virtual Machine folder
i. vmkfstools –i /vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/NewBootDrive/newbootdrive.vmdk ./newbootdrive.vmdk
1. Where [datastore] is the name of the datastore without brackets
ii. Wait as the command completes
d. Delete the existing VM hard drive (boot drive).
i. vmkfstools –U VM_filename.vmdk
1. Where VM_filename.vmdk is the filename of the Virtual Machines current hard drive.
e. Rename the newbootdrive.vmdk to the previous filename
i. vmkfstools –E newbootdrive.vmdk VM_filename.vmdk
1. Where VM_filename.vmdk was the filename of the Virtual Machines current hard drive.
7) Using the VI Client
a. Power on the new Virtual Machine
b. Attached the appropriate Windows OS ISO (or other an ISO of another OS) and install the operating system.
c. DO NOT Delete the existing partition when installing the OS.
d. After installation verify that the partition offset of the new disk is properly aligned to 64K.
8) Repeat steps 11-13 as needed for each new Windows Virtual Machine