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Wajeeh
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Convert thin provisioned vmdk to thick, any chances of loosing data on vmdk ?

Dear All,

I need to understand if this is possible to inflate a vmdk that was originally as thin provisioned but now for certain reasons we think it should be thick, is it possible now ?

- Turn off the VM

- Go to virtual machine folder in datastore, right click the vmdk and inflate

- power on the virtual machine again

Is this all needed ? If machine having two virtual hard disks and both are thin, can we inflate them both during single downtime window?

Please share if any possible problems in above given case.

Kind Regards,

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a_p_
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Just a quick note: The mentioned KB article contains a sentence, which IMO should be formatted in bold and red:

There should be no snapshots and the conversion is performed on the base disk

Make absolutely sure you delete/commit all active snapshots before you try to inflate the base disks!

André

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Alim786
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This is possible as you describe. You just have to make sure you have enough free disk space in the Datastore.

Please see below article link for detailed actions :-

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=201483...

Hope this helps !

VCP6-DCV, VCP5, CCNA, MCTS 2008R2, MCSA 2008R2, CCA, ITIL. Please mark answer helpful or correct as appropriate.
a_p_
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Just a quick note: The mentioned KB article contains a sentence, which IMO should be formatted in bold and red:

There should be no snapshots and the conversion is performed on the base disk

Make absolutely sure you delete/commit all active snapshots before you try to inflate the base disks!

André

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Wajeeh
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Hello Andre,

Yes, there are no snapshots we are sure.

So, other then this there is nothing else to worry about while performing the inflate operation on powered off virtual machine?

Kind Regards,

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a_p_
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I only needed to do this a few times, and I never had issues with the VMs.

Anyway, it's always recommended to have a current backup in case something unexpected happens!

André

Wajeeh
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Hello Andre,

Thanks for addressing the case.

The given article also states at step 9 and step 10:

9.  Right-click the .vmdk file, and click Inflate. The Inflate option converts the disk to thick provisioned.

10 Reload the .vmx file. For more information see Reloading a vmx file without removing the virtual machine from inventory (1026043

( Why this is required, the machine will not power ON if step 10 is not done?)

Kind Regards,

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a_p_
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To be honest, I'm not sure whether step 10 is really required as there are no changes in the configuration (.vmx) file. However, in case of a production VM, I'd perform this step as it requires only a few seconds to do it.

André

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Wajeeh
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Thanks for your usual support always.

Kind Regards,

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