When the virtual machine is powered off at the end of the day, all changes made are discarded. Students can use the virtual machine normally during the day. The virtual machine has all the necessary software loaded, such as browsers, programming tools, computer-aided learning software, and so on. Discarding the changes is useful in certain situations.įor example, you have a virtual machine configured for a school setting or kiosk. When the virtual machine is shut down, the changes are discarded. While the virtual machine is running, a non-persistent disk stores all of the changes made to a disk in a separate file. Specify independent disks as Persistent or Nonpersistent. Accomplish this economy of host disk space by making the second disk independent. You can economize host disk space by not storing that data when a snapshot is taken. Therefore, you have no need to save the data from the second disk in a snapshot of the virtual machine. The data on this disk has no value once the virtual machine is powered off. The second disk is configured to hold the Linux swap file or the Windows page file. Independent mode for a disk in a virtual machine if you are prepared to give up the ability to take snapshots of the virtual machine when powered on.Īlthough independent disks are not commonly used, they are useful in specific situations.įor example, you have a virtual machine with two virtual disks. Caution: Independent disks do not participate in snapshots.
