VMWARE Server tips

When VMWARE released its free server version, I began playing with it. I am using this page to document the things I learned.

Q. How do I expand the size of my virtual disk?
scenario: I created a virtual machine with a disk of 2gb, its is close to running out of space, what do I do?

A. When you install vmware server a command line program is provided called vmware-vdiskmanager ( docs )  it is located in the C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server directory. Use this command to expand your virtual disk, be advised this command only expands the disk it does not expand the filesystem on the disk. You need to use something like partition magic or like I did, gparted which is a linux based tool, be sure and read the docs and of course make a backup first. I did this successfully with a windows xp pro ntfs filesystem with no problems.

overview

1. Shutdown the virtual machine
2. Resize the virtual disk using the vdisk-manager
3. Boot the virtual machine to the gparted livecd
4. Expand the filesystem to fill the additional space
5. Reboot the virtual machine, probably have to do a filesystem check
6. Enjoy all your new space.

Q. How come I cant have multiple snapshots? 

A. I don't know for sure, but I assume the multiple snapshot feature is disabled to encourage people to buy the workstation version