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Advanced Disk Usage and Setup Options

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This article describes advanced disk usage and setup options for ACE instances.

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During packaging, ACE creates a full clone of the virtual machine disk. The default clone uses sparse, compressed, split disks (with a maximum of 2GB extents, or smaller if it is packaging for media that is smaller than 2GB per disk) that are compressed and sparse. The option to produce encrypted or unencrypted packaged disks is exposed in the user interface (based on the authentication policy choice). You have the option to forgo disk compression by modifying the uncompressedPackages setting in the aceMaster.dat file (located in the ACE master directory). Change the setting to either 1 or 0. The default is 0.

Note: You must close the ACE Master tab before making changes to the aceMaster.dat file. After you have made your changes, save and close the aceMaster.dat file, and click the ACE Master tab. The changes should now be in effect.

Compressing packages increases the packaging time significantly, but makes packages and installed ACE instances take up much less space. The ACE installers are faster for compressed packages. The default compression, encryption, and packaging options also guarantee that the ACE setup process, which takes place the first time an ACE is run, is much faster (more on this below).

The first time an ACE instance is run, the disks are transformed. The process depends on the packaged format, the package encryption level, the runtime encryption level, the desired disk type, and whether or not a disk is independent-nonpersistent.

An ACE package can be configured so that the disk of an ACE instance is switched to a specific format during ACE setup. The desired disk type can be either flat, sparse, or sparseCompressed. You can override the desired disk type by editing the aceMaster.dat file and changing the setting of the deployedDiskType field (which by default is blank, not overriding the default of sparseCompressed).

If a user selects flat disks, all the disks of the ACE instance are converted into preallocated disks the first time the ACE is run. If a user selects sparse disks, all the ACEs disks are converted to sparse disks the first time the ACE is run. If a user selects sparseCompressed disks, all the disks of the ACE instance, except for its independent-persistent disks, are converted to sparse compressed disks the first time the ACE instance is run (no conversion is necessary if the ACE instance was created from a compressed package unless the ACE instance has any independent-persistent disks). Disk conversion can be a lengthy process, significantly adding to ACE setup time.

If an ACE instance has different package protection and instance protection levels, encryption or decryption must occur during ACE setup. This can be a lengthy process that significantly adds to ACE setup time.

There are a few snapshots to consider for ACE instances:

Note: No snapshots are taken for Pocket ACE instances.

1. ACE instances running on compressed disks (the default) have a snapshot taken during ACE setup.

2. By default, ACE instances have a snapshot taken during ACE setup to support the revert to reimage policy. Disabling that policy in the policy editor does not affect whether or not the snapshot is taken. To skip the snapshot, set the skipTakingInitialReimage entry in the aceMaster.dat file to 1.

3. User snapshots are not allowed for Pocket ACEs.

For example, if you want to use an ACE instance with two disks, one that is independent-persistent and one that is independent-nonpersistent, and that are both preallocated and run off no snapshots, set your ACE master with the appropriate independent disk settings. Set deployedDiskType = flat and skipTakingInitialReimage = 1 in the aceMaster.dat file of your ACE master and turn off all snapshot policies (to prevent user snapshots). Determine whether or not you want to compress packages based on the difference you observed in package size (and depending on how you want to distribute your packages) and installation and deployment time in your tests.

Pocket ACEs are packaged normally (the compressed or not compressed option applies). The next step for Pocket ACEs is deployment to a device. This is equivalent to installation and setup for a standard ACE instance. During Pocket ACE deployment, ACE transforms the disks to preallocated disks and encrypts them. No other option is presented. The only consideration is whether or not the package they were deployed from was compressed.

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KB Article: 1000356
Updated: Aug 14, 2009

Products:
VMware ACE
Product Versions:
VMware ACE 2.0.x

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