Shrinking Thin Provisioned VMDK within ESXi Server

[PLippard]

If I use the vSphere CLI command below.....to clone a VMDK.....will it also shrink the VMDK ?

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/templates/gold-master.vmdk

/vmfs/volumes/myVMFS/myOS.vmdk -d thin -a lsilogic

I need to shrink a VMDK within ESXi Server.

[thakala]

To shrink a VMDK you could also just migrate with vSphere Client it and select thin as new type.

Tomi

http://v-reality.info

[PLippard]

What do you mean by the word "migrate" ? ....is this the same as simply doing a copy/paste for a VMDK to make a copy ?

[thakala]

By migration I mean moving a VMDK from datastore to another using vSphere Client.

Tomi

http://v-reality.info

[PLippard]

Yes....you are right of course.

I copied the VMDK using vClient....and the destination size is only 10gb.....while the source (and fully provisioned) size was 40gb.

So....copying the VMDK using vClient is more of a logical copy.....not a physical copy....so provided SDelete has been run.....and it is a Thin provisioned VMDK... the destination VMDK will be shrunk.

Thanks