Data Object Description

Properties

Name	Type	Description
changeId*	xsd:string	The change ID of the virtual disk for the corresponding snapshot or virtual machine. This can be used to track incremental changes to a virtual disk. See QueryChangedDiskAreas. *Since* vSphere API 4.0
contentId*	xsd:string	Content ID of the virtual disk file, if available. A content ID indicates the logical contents of the disk backing and its parents. This property is only guaranteed to be up to date if this disk backing is not currently being written to by any virtual machine. The only supported operation is comparing if two content IDs are equal or not. The guarantee provided by the content ID is that if two disk backings have the same content ID and are not currently being written to, then reads issued from the guest operating system to those disk backings will return the same data. *Since* vSphere API 4.0
deltaDiskFormat*	xsd:string	The format of the delta disk. This field is valid only for a delta disk. See DeltaDiskFormat for the supported formats. If not specified, the default value used is redoLogFormat. If nativeFormat is specified and the datastore does not support this format or the parent is on a different datastore, DeltaDiskFormatNotSupported is thrown. vSphere server does not support relocation of virtual machines with nativeFormat. An exception is thrown for such requests. *Since* vSphere API 5.0
digestEnabled*	xsd:boolean	Indicates whether the disk backing has digest file enabled. *Since* vSphere API 5.0
diskMode	xsd:string	The disk persistence mode. Valid modes are: persistent independent_persistent independent_nonpersistent nonpersistent undoable append See VirtualDiskMode
eagerlyScrub*	xsd:boolean	Flag to indicate to the underlying filesystem whether the virtual disk backing file should be scrubbed completely at this time. Virtual disks on some filesystems like VMFS3 are zeroed-out lazily so that disk creation time doesn't take too long. However, clustering applications and features like Fault Tolerance require that the virtual disk be completely scrubbed. This setting allows controlling the scrubbing policy on a per-disk basis. If this flag is unset or set to false when creating a new disk, the disk scrubbing policy will be decided by the filesystem. If this flag is unset or set to false when editing an existing disk, it is ignored. When returned as part of a VirtualMachineConfigInfo, this property may be unset if its value is unknown. *Since* vSphere API 4.0
parent*	VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo	The parent of this virtual disk file, if this is a delta disk backing. This will be unset if this is not a delta disk backing. A delta disk backing is a way to preserve a virtual disk backing at some point in time. A delta disk backing is a file backing which in turn points to the original virtual disk backing (the parent). After a delta disk backing is added, all writes go to the delta disk backing. All reads first try the delta disk backing and then try the parent backing if needed. A delta disk backing can be added to a disk either implicitly during snapshot operations, or explicitly during create or reconfigure of the virtual machine. Note that the type of the backing is consistent throughout the chain; any new delta disk backing which is added is of the same type as the original disk . Also note that since the parent backing is not being written to, it is possible that the parent backing may be shared among multiple disks belonging to multiple virtual machines. During virtual machine creation and reconfiguration this property is only checked if the VirtualDeviceConfigSpec specifies an add operation with a create file operation. In this case, a new delta disk backing is created which points to the parent disk backing. Only the fileName property is important; all other properties will be ignored. The parent backing is assumed to exist and will not be recursively created. This property may only be set if deltaDiskBackingsSupported is true. *Since* vSphere API 4.0
split*	xsd:boolean	Flag to indicate the type of virtual disk file: split or monolithic. If true, the virtual disk is stored in multiple files, each 2GB. On ESX this property is ignored when creating new disks or editing existing disks. This property is always false for disks created on ESX. When an existing split disk such as those created by VMware Server is added to a virtual machine on ESX, the property will be set to true when retrieved from VirtualMachineConfigInfo.
thinProvisioned*	xsd:boolean	Flag to indicate to the underlying filesystem, whether the virtual disk backing file should be allocated lazily (using thin provisioning). This flag is only used for file systems that support configuring the provisioning policy on a per file basis, such as VMFS3. See perFileThinProvisioningSupported
uuid*	xsd:string	Disk UUID for the virtual disk, if available. *Since* VI API 2.5
writeThrough*	xsd:boolean	Flag to indicate whether writes should go directly to the file system or should be buffered.
Properties inherited from VirtualDeviceFileBackingInfo
datastore, fileName
Properties inherited from VirtualDeviceBackingInfo
None
Properties inherited from DynamicData
dynamicProperty, dynamicType

Name

Type

Description

changeId*

xsd:string

The change ID of the virtual disk for the corresponding snapshot or virtual machine. This can be used to track incremental changes to a virtual disk. See QueryChangedDiskAreas.

Since vSphere API 4.0

contentId*

xsd:string

Content ID of the virtual disk file, if available.

A content ID indicates the logical contents of the disk backing and its parents.

This property is only guaranteed to be up to date if this disk backing is not currently being written to by any virtual machine.

The only supported operation is comparing if two content IDs are equal or not. The guarantee provided by the content ID is that if two disk backings have the same content ID and are not currently being written to, then reads issued from the guest operating system to those disk backings will return the same data.

Since vSphere API 4.0

deltaDiskFormat*

xsd:string

The format of the delta disk.

This field is valid only for a delta disk.

See DeltaDiskFormat for the supported formats. If not specified, the default value used is redoLogFormat.

If nativeFormat is specified and the datastore does not support this format or the parent is on a different datastore, DeltaDiskFormatNotSupported is thrown.

vSphere server does not support relocation of virtual machines with nativeFormat. An exception is thrown for such requests.

Since vSphere API 5.0

digestEnabled*

xsd:boolean

Indicates whether the disk backing has digest file enabled.

Since vSphere API 5.0

diskMode

xsd:string

The disk persistence mode. Valid modes are:

See VirtualDiskMode

eagerlyScrub*

xsd:boolean

Flag to indicate to the underlying filesystem whether the virtual disk backing file should be scrubbed completely at this time.

Virtual disks on some filesystems like VMFS3 are zeroed-out lazily so that disk creation time doesn't take too long. However, clustering applications and features like Fault Tolerance require that the virtual disk be completely scrubbed. This setting allows controlling the scrubbing policy on a per-disk basis.

If this flag is unset or set to false when creating a new disk, the disk scrubbing policy will be decided by the filesystem. If this flag is unset or set to false when editing an existing disk, it is ignored. When returned as part of a VirtualMachineConfigInfo, this property may be unset if its value is unknown.

Since vSphere API 4.0

parent*

VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo

The parent of this virtual disk file, if this is a delta disk backing. This will be unset if this is not a delta disk backing.

A delta disk backing is a way to preserve a virtual disk backing at some point in time. A delta disk backing is a file backing which in turn points to the original virtual disk backing (the parent). After a delta disk backing is added, all writes go to the delta disk backing. All reads first try the delta disk backing and then try the parent backing if needed.

A delta disk backing can be added to a disk either implicitly during snapshot operations, or explicitly during create or reconfigure of the virtual machine.

Note that the type of the backing is consistent throughout the chain; any new delta disk backing which is added is of the same type as the original disk . Also note that since the parent backing is not being written to, it is possible that the parent backing may be shared among multiple disks belonging to multiple virtual machines.

During virtual machine creation and reconfiguration this property is only checked if the VirtualDeviceConfigSpec specifies an add operation with a create file operation. In this case, a new delta disk backing is created which points to the parent disk backing. Only the fileName property is important; all other properties will be ignored. The parent backing is assumed to exist and will not be recursively created.

This property may only be set if deltaDiskBackingsSupported is true.

Since vSphere API 4.0

split*

xsd:boolean

Flag to indicate the type of virtual disk file: split or monolithic. If true, the virtual disk is stored in multiple files, each 2GB. On ESX this property is ignored when creating new disks or editing existing disks. This property is always false for disks created on ESX. When an existing split disk such as those created by VMware Server is added to a virtual machine on ESX, the property will be set to true when retrieved from VirtualMachineConfigInfo.

thinProvisioned*

xsd:boolean

Flag to indicate to the underlying filesystem, whether the virtual disk backing file should be allocated lazily (using thin provisioning). This flag is only used for file systems that support configuring the provisioning policy on a per file basis, such as VMFS3.
See perFileThinProvisioningSupported

uuid*

xsd:string

Disk UUID for the virtual disk, if available.

Since VI API 2.5

writeThrough*

xsd:boolean

Flag to indicate whether writes should go directly to the file system or should be buffered.

Properties inherited from VirtualDeviceFileBackingInfo

datastore, fileName

Properties inherited from VirtualDeviceBackingInfo

None

Properties inherited from DynamicData

dynamicProperty, dynamicType

Need not be set

Show WSDL type definition

         <complexType xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:vim25="urn:vim25" name="VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo">
            <complexContent>
               <extension base="vim25:VirtualDeviceFileBackingInfo">
                  <sequence>
                     <element name="diskMode" type="xsd:string"/>
                     <element name="split" type="xsd:boolean" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="writeThrough" type="xsd:boolean" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="thinProvisioned" type="xsd:boolean" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="eagerlyScrub" type="xsd:boolean" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="uuid" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="contentId" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="changeId" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="parent" type="vim25:VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="deltaDiskFormat" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0"/>
                     <element name="digestEnabled" type="xsd:boolean" minOccurs="0"/>
                  </sequence>
               </extension>
            </complexContent>
         </complexType>

Data Object - VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo

Data Object Description