VMs can be edited at any time. However, the fields and sections that are displayed on each of the four wizard pages depend on various circumstances:
Which type of VM is it? Xen, VMware, or Hyper-V?
What is the VM’s installed state? Defining, defined, installing, or installed?
What is the VM’s defined state? Defining or defined?
What is the run time state of the VM? Running, paused, suspended, or stopped?
Is the VM state unknown?
Any combination of these factors determines which fields can be edited or shown. The displayed fields that can’t be edited are inaccessible (dimmed), or if no fields on a wizard page are editable, the page isn’t shown.
IMPORTANT:If the VM that you want to edit is running, only a few of its properties can be changed. If you want to edit a running VM, know that any changes are only retained in RAM, so when this instance if the VM is stopped, those edits are not kept.
To edit a VM, run the Virtual Machine Properties Wizard:
If you want to retain your edits on a VM, click the VM Client, right-click the VM that you want to edit, then select .
view in theDo one of the following to start the wizard:
Select a VM, then click the button.
Select a VM, then click
> .Select a VM, then press Ctrl+E.
Right-click any listed VM, then select
.The following wizard page is displayed:
The above example is for a stopped VM.
Fill in the available fields:
Description: Note the purpose and any other specifics you might require of the VM. These notes apply to all versions of this VM.
Guest Operating System: The operating system you want to install on your VM.
If the Unknown for the VM you are editing, you can select an operating system here.
column on the view displaysAdditional Arguments: This field applies only to paravirtual installations. These are Linux install arguments, which are operating system parameters similar to the information entered in a GRUB boot loader when running on bare hardware in SLES and SLED. Additional network installation information can be added here, which is used during the build process to find the installation source for the VM build process.
Click
to display the following wizard page:The above example is for a stopped VM.
Fill in the available fields to define the kind of hardware to be virtualized for the VM:
Processors: The number of virtual processors the VM has.
Memory Size: The amount of virtual RAM the VM has, or paravirtualized memory that can be used by the VM if it is paravirtualized.
Max: The amount of virtual RAM the VM has, or paravirtualized memory that can be used by the VM if it is paravirtualized.
Display Driver: The properties of the VM’s display. If you have chosen paravirtualization for this VM, your only option is
. If you have chosen full virtualization, you can select between or the on-board VGA. If you do not need a display, you can turn off the display on a fully virtualized machine.Remote Console Password: The password for remotely controlling the VM. Use the two fields to confirm that the password is typed correctly.
Click
to display the following wizard page:The above example is for a stopped VM. The default for the Step 5.
field is . The other possible types are iSCSI, NPIV, and NAS. For more information, seeThe Storage Devices page is for defining the hard drives and CD or DVD drives that you want to include in the VM profile. The first device must always be a hard disk that cannot be removed unless another hard disk has been put into the first slot. This is the only disk (Disk 0) that is stored. All other disks are virtual and are created upon launching the VM. You can add any other storage devices you want to the VM and prioritize their use in the list.
IMPORTANT:After installing a VM, you cannot change the disk settings for existing disks. However, you can add and configure newer disks.
To fill in the storage device information, select a task from the following table:
Tasks |
Steps |
Additional Details |
---|---|---|
Adding a hard disk to your VM |
|
The following restrictions apply per VM:
While adding an additional NPIV disk to a VM, ensure that the disk values for Fabric ID, World Wide Name, Target ID, and LUN are unique for each NPIV disk of the VM. Creation of a block-based VM is not supported for NPIV. IMPORTANT:iSCSI and NPIV can be used for secondary disks. However, if you add iSCSI or NPIV as a secondary disk, you can change the order of the disks and make it to be the first disk. This is not supported. If you define iSCSI or NPIV as a first disk, when the VM is stopped and restarted, the configuration file that is stored on the iSCSI or NPIV disk is looked for in a local repository, and when not found, a local repository is created for the VM, thus losing connection to the iSCSI or NPIV disk. |
Adding a CD-ROM or DVD ROM to your VM |
|
IMPORTANT:If you add a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, the VM can only be moved, migrated, or used to create a template if the CD-ROM’s or DVD-ROM’s ISO or image is accessible through shared storage. |
Rearranging the order in which each storage device is accessed |
|
The first storage device in the list must be a hard disk, which is the only one actually stored in the VM image. |
Deleting a storage device |
|
Removes the selected storage device from the table. WARNING:If the storage device is based on a disk image, that could also be deleted. To preserve the disk image, manually copy it to another location before deleting the storage device. |
Click
to display the following wizard page:The above example is for a stopped VM.
The network devices are added, deleted, and defined on the Network page, where you add specific information about your network connections or intended network connections for your VM. You can define more detailed NIC settings in your auto-install files or when performing a guest installation.
To fill in the NIC information, select a task from the following table:
To complete and close the wizard, click
.You can click
to make further changes before applying the edits.The wizard configuration changes are applied and the VM is saved in the
view.Focus is returned to the
view after you exit the wizard, with the edited VM selected in the list.To install an edited VM at a later time, see Section 5.5, Installing a VM.