You can also use Windows PowerShell to create new virtual disks and add them to your virtual machines. For example, let’s say you want to create and attach a 500-GB dynamically expanding data disk to virtual machine SRV-A on HOST4. You can begin by using the Get-VHD command to display a list of disks attached to SRV-A as follows:
PS C:\> Get-VM -VMName SRV-A | Select-Object VMId | Get-VHD | `
Format-List Path,VhdFormat,VhdType,Size
Next you can use the New-VHD cmdlet to create the new data disk as follows:
PS C:\> New-VHD -SizeBytes 500GB `
-Path “C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\SRV-A-data.vhdx”
Next you can use the Add-VMHardDiskDrive cmdlet to attach the new data disk to location 1 on IDE controller 0 as follows:
PS C:\> Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName SRV-A `
-Path “C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\SRV-A-data.vhdx” `
-ControllerType IDE -ControllerNumber 0 -ControllerLocation 1
You can then use the Get-VHD cmdlet as before to verify the result:
PS C:\> Get-VM -VMName SRV-A | Select-Object VMId | Get-VHD | `
Format-List Path,VhdFormat,VhdType,Size
Path : C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\SRV-A.vhdx
VhdFormat : VHDX
VhdType : Dynamic
Size : 536870912000
Path : C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\SRV-A-data.vhdx
VhdFormat : VHDX
VhdType : Dynamic
Size : 536870912000
The above tip was excerpted from Mitch Tulloch’s book Training Guide: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft Press.
Mitch is a nine-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and a widely recognized expert on Windows administration, deployment and virtualization. For more information see http://www.mtit.com.
