What PVM changes do I need to worry about for backups?

I just started running Time Machine. I've excluded my HDD files as I have another strategy for those contents.

My PVM file is 2.2GB mainly due to the memory image. I am tempted to exclude that too because it seems to get swept up by time machine whenever I shut the VM down. But I am unclear about what else about the PVM file may change routinely causing me to need some backups. I'm not talking about config changes I make to the VM. I'm talking about stuff that I may not know about. Parallel tools stuff or whathaveyou.

Thanx.

EDIT: BTW, I am asking because it appears that Time Machine will not let me exclude files WITHIN the .pvm "folder." If it did, I would excluded the .mem file and be done with it.

 

A virtual machine doesn't really need anything except the .hdd. How many CPUs and RAM, the list of shared folders, the network settings, etc. don't matter as much as the .hdd.

A virtual machine can contain snapshots. Snapshots of the hard disk data are stored in the .hdd. Snapshots of the configuration info are stored in the .pvm. I don't know if an .hdd that has snapshots is usable in a different newly created .pvm.

 

Thanx for the comeback...

I wasn't sure if maybe there were some Parallel Tools setup semantics stored in there. Such as pointers to windows apps for Open With menus and such.

 

The preferences only tell Parallels Desktop that you want to share Windows applications. Parallels then creates Mac helper apps in a Windows Applications folder elsewhere on your Mac's hard disk (in /Applications or ~/Applications). You can delete the folder and it will be automatically recreated the next time you run the virtual machine if the Share Windows Apps setting is enabled. Each Mac helper application (~ 200 KB each) tells Parallels which virtual machine to run and where in the virtual machine the Windows executable is located.

 

Thanx!

That was helpful. Thanx for the info.