For some scenarios you may want to run in your lab – like testing VSAN or deployment of Nutanix – there is a requirement to have SSD disk attached to virtual machine.

In nested lab scenarios this kind of disk can be easily simulated.

In case you use VMware Workstation, the easiest way to stop virtual machine (if it is running), close VMware Workstation and edit virtual machine’s VMX file. You need to add below line for X:Y disk you want to convert to SSD:

scsiX:Y.virtualSSD = 1

In vSphere you can unregister virtual machine, download it’s VMX file the way described above or – much easier – select virtual machine in vCenter, go to Manage tab and then to Settings, next to VM Options, then click on Edit, go to VM Options tab, expand Advanced section and click Edit configuration (yes, that way log way to get here :P). In parameters window click Add row and put scsiX:Y.virtualSSD parameter:

After you accept changes and boot the virtual machine, it should detect disk as SSD.