Index: /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_AdvancedTopics.xml =================================================================== --- /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_AdvancedTopics.xml (revision 37836) +++ /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_AdvancedTopics.xml (revision 37837) @@ -1547,5 +1547,6 @@ true to false. To manually start the - service use the following command: launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist + service use the following command: + launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist For additional information on how launchd services could be configured see Memory Ballooning Service - Starting with VirtualBox 4.0.8 a new host executable called VBoxBalloonCtrl is - available to automatically take care of a VM's configured memory balloon (see - for an introduction to memory ballooning). This is especially useful for server environments where VMs may dynamically - require more or less memory during runtime. - - VBoxBalloonCtrl periodically checks a VM's current memory balloon and its free guest RAM and automatically adjusts - the current memory balloon by inflating or deflating it accordingly. This handling only applies to running VMs having recent - Guest Additions installed. - - To set up VBoxBalloonCtrl and adjust the maximum ballooning size a VM can reach the following parameters will be checked in the following - order: + Starting with VirtualBox 4.0.8 a new host executable called + VBoxBalloonCtrl is available to + automatically take care of a VM's configured memory balloon + (see for an introduction to memory + ballooning). This is especially useful for server environments where + VMs may dynamically require more or less memory during runtime. + + VBoxBalloonCtrl periodically checks a VM's current memory balloon + and its free guest RAM and automatically adjusts the current memory + balloon by inflating or deflating it accordingly. This handling only + applies to running VMs having recent Guest Additions installed. + + To set up VBoxBalloonCtrl and adjust the maximum ballooning size a + VM can reach the following parameters will be checked in the following + order: - specified via VBoxBalloonCtrl command line parameter --balloon-max - per-VM parameter using VBoxManage setextradata "VM-Name" VBoxInternal/Guest/BalloonSizeMax <Size in MB> - global parameter for all VMs using VBoxManage setextradata global VBoxInternal/Guest/BalloonSizeMax <Size in MB> + specified via VBoxBalloonCtrl command line parameter + --balloon-max + per-VM parameter using + VBoxManage setextradata "VM-Name" VBoxInternal/Guest/BalloonSizeMax <Size in MB> + global parameter for all VMs using + VBoxManage setextradata global VBoxInternal/Guest/BalloonSizeMax <Size in MB> - If no maximum ballooning size is specified by at least one of the parameters above, no ballooning will be performed at all. + If no maximum ballooning size is specified by at least one of the + parameters above, no ballooning will be performed at all. - For more options and parameters check the built-in command line help accessible with --help. + For more options and parameters check the built-in command line help + accessible with --help. Index: /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Introduction.xml =================================================================== --- /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Introduction.xml (revision 37836) +++ /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Introduction.xml (revision 37837) @@ -748,5 +748,5 @@ VirtualBox supports two types of image files: - A dynamically expanding + A dynamically allocated file will only grow in size when the guest actually stores data on its virtual hard disk. It will therefore @@ -761,5 +761,5 @@ occupying much more space, a fixed-size file incurs less overhead and is therefore slightly faster than a dynamically - expanding file. + allocated file. Index: /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Storage.xml =================================================================== --- /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Storage.xml (revision 37836) +++ /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Storage.xml (revision 37837) @@ -295,5 +295,5 @@ Irrespective of the disk capacity and format, as briefly mentioned in , there are two options of how to create - a disk image: fixed-size or dynamically expanding. + a disk image: fixed-size or dynamically allocated. @@ -309,14 +309,14 @@ For more flexible storage management, use a dynamically expanding image. This will + role="bold">dynamically allocated image. This will initially be very small and not occupy any space for unused virtual - disk sectors, but the image file will grow every time a disk sector is - written to for the first time. While this format takes less space - initially, the fact that VirtualBox needs to constantly expand the - image file consumes additional computing resources, so until the disk - has fully expanded, write operations are slower than with fixed size - disks. However, after a dynamic disk has fully expanded, the - performance penalty for read and write operations is - negligible. + disk sectors, but will grow every time a disk sector is written to for + the first time, until the drive reaches the maximum capacity chosen + when the drive was created. While this format takes less space + initially, the fact that VirtualBox needs to expand the image file + consumes additional computing resources, so until the disk file size has + stabilized, write operations may be slower than with fixed size disks. + However, after a time the rate of growth will slow and the average penalty + for write operations will be negligible. @@ -416,5 +416,5 @@ virtual machine and snapshot operations. This applies to all of the aforementioned image formats (VDI, VMDK, VHD or HDD) and irrespective of - whether an image is fixed-size or dynamically expanding. + whether an image is fixed-size or dynamically allocated. By default, images are in "normal" mode. To mark an existing image @@ -473,5 +473,5 @@ between VMs and similar applications which are explicitly prepared to access a disk concurrently. Only fixed size images can be used in this - way, and dynamically growing images are rejected. + way, and dynamically allocated images are rejected. This is an expert feature, and misuse can lead to data loss -- regular filesystems are not prepared to handle simultaneous Index: /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml =================================================================== --- /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml (revision 37836) +++ /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml (revision 37837) @@ -2046,5 +2046,5 @@ With the --compact option, can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only - contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically expanding image + contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image again; it will reduce the physical size of the image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk. @@ -2063,5 +2063,5 @@ Please note that compacting is currently only available for VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free - blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically expanding + blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also supported for disk formats other than VDI. @@ -2075,5 +2075,5 @@ Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0. This currently works only for expanding the capacity of - VDI and VHD formats, and only for the dynamically expanding variants. + VDI and VHD formats, and only for the dynamically allocated variants. For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full, you can use the --resize 15360