XenServer Administrator's Guide 4.1.0

Command line interface
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5.4.19. VDI commands
Commands for working with VDIs (Virtual Disk Images).
A VDI is a software object that represents the contents of the virtual disk seen by a VM, as opposed to the
VBD, which is a connector object that ties a VM to the VDI. The VDI has the information on the physical
attributes of the virtual disk (which type of SR, whether the disk is shareable, whether the media is read/
write or read only, and so on), while the VBD has the attributes which tie the VDI to the VM (is it bootable,
its read/write metrics, and so on).
The VDI objects can be listed with the standard object listing command (xe vdi-list), and the parameters
manipulated with the standard parameter commands. See Section 5.3.2, “Low-level param commands” for
details.
VDI parameters
VDIs have the following parameters:
Parameter Name Description Type
uuid The unique identifier/object reference for
the VDI
read only
name-label The name of the VDI read/write
name-description The description string of the VDI read/write
allowed-operations a list of the operations allowed in this state read only set parameter
current-operations a list of the operations that are currently in
progress on this VDI
read only set parameter
sr-uuid SR in which the VDI resides read only
vbd-uuids a list of VBDs that refer to this VDI read only set parameter
crashdump-uuids list of crash dumps that refer to this VDI read only set parameter
virtual-size size of disk as presented to the VM, in
bytes. Note that, depending on storage
backend type, the size may not be
respected exactly
read only
physical-utilisation amount of physical space that the VDI is
currently taking up on the SR, in bytes
read only
type type of VDI, for example, System or User read only
sharable true if this VDI may be shared read only
read-only true if this VDI can only be mounted read-
only
read only
storage-lock true if this VDI is locked at the storage
level
read only
parent References the parent VDI, if this VDI is
part of a chain
read only
missing true if SR scan operation reported this VDI
as not present
read only
other-config additional configuration information for this
VDI
read/write map parameter
sr-name-label name of the containing storage repository read only