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jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Virtual Disk format convert from Think Provisoning to Thin Provisioning

Is this possible to change the Disk mode from Think Provisioning to Thin provisioning after creation and power on the Virtual machine?  :smileyconfused: :smileyconfused: :smileyconfused:

13 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Yes, with Storage vMotion you can select the target virtual disk format.

Other options require the VM to be powered off.


André

jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If the Server is Critical then can we do it while running?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Although this can be done online, it's recommended to do it during non-peak hours.

Btw. personally I tend to configure have critical VMs with thick provisioned virtual disk, to avoid possible issues with low, or none disk space on the datatore.

André

jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

IF there is any issue with Critical or Non- Critical Servers with low disk space we can increase the size on existing disk Size?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

You can certainly use thin provisioning, but in this case you need to monitor the free disk space on the datastore, and have free space on your storage to increase it if required.


André

jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Let's summarize the whole plan to resolve disk space issue:

1: This is  UCS-B460-M4 (Total 4 Blades) with local disk space around 3-4 TB

2: VMotion all the Virtual Machines (6 windows 2012R2 & 1 Linus) on First Blade to other Blades during Non-Peak hours.

3: VMotion all these 7 VMs include Storage as Thin Provisioning.

4: VMotion Back all these 7 VMs with storage back to First Blade.

Here are few more queries:

1: What Storage polices we need to select during VMotion? (Datastore Default or Keep Existing Storage Policies)

2: After the VMotion to other Blade do we need to re-scan or refresh the Data Store on Blade from where we Migrate the VM machine?

3: Can we change the Hard Disk size before moving the VM to its original blade? Because it has selected the full size of Storage during creation? (Below is example from Test Lab VM)

  Thin provisioning.JPG

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

The steps are basically ok. Remember that converting the virtual disk to the thin provisioned format only frees up storage space for blocks which are still zeroed/unused within the guest OS.

Regarding your questions:

  1. Not sure about your configuration, but I think "Keep existing" should be the correct choice.
  2. No, no rescan etc. needed
  3. You can always increase (not decrease) the virtual disk's size if there's sufficient free disk space on the datastore. In order to decrease a virtual disk's size, you'd need to use e.g. VMware Converter, which however requires downtime.

André

jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Normally we define the Disk space for example 100G or 200G for specific VM base on the Role but I think in Blade Level it has been selected full space as Think Provisioning.I will double check again but lets assume if it selected the Full Disk Space like 2 TB which is the maximum local storage then in this case VMotion activity as thin provisioning can benefit to free the disk space?

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jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Further the maximum size is showing very high so can I use the share option to reduce the overall size? Now its Normal so if I use Low it will reduce the maximum size because by default it has showing 950GB?

Amin

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Further the maximum size is showing very high so can I use the share option to reduce the overall size? Now its Normal so if I use Low it will reduce the maximum size because by default it has showing 950GB?

Sorry, but can you post e.g. a screenshot to explain this. I'm not aware of any share options which reduce the disk space.

André

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jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Here you can see there is option about the Share as Normal under the HDD. By Default its normal and we can reduce is to Low or High and can customize as well.

share.JPG

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

I see. However, this share setting is related to performance rather than to the virtual disk's size.

André

jahanzaib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have another Discuss open about the Local Disk Clustering. Kindly have look and give your technical advice.

Thanks,

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