vmdk file size increasing?

[XPOSE]

Hi All,

I have a vmdk file which is slowly growing in size... Although not much, Approx: 100kb-1mb every 10-15mins...

Ive checked this against the Windows C:\ size. 97GB in use of 249GB.

According to ESXi it shows approx 113GB in use... Nothing within windows has really changed, as it was V2V last night to reclaim space. When this was complete there was 170GB free on the datastore, now there is 159GB....

Any ideas?

[john23]

is base vmdk size is increasing?

is it a thin provision vmdk?

[XPOSE]

Yes vmdk size is increasing.

Yes it is thin provisioned.

[john23]

Then its possible, I will try to explain by this esxample

-Windows OS use some space--> 10GB (copied some iso) now your space in c: reduce ,and thin provision disk has claimed that space(10 GB).

-Now you delete that 10 GB from C: , Windows will shows the free  space, but thin provision will not unclaim that space.

For this in vSphere 5 thin provision space reclaim feature  support ,but storage vendor must support this.

Hope this explain it,

[XPOSE]

I understand your example - this was the whole reason why I V2V the drive last night - to reclaim the space. As a result I had 170GB free showing last night in ESXi, now there is 159GB... - Nothing on the drive has been added/deleted/changed to accomodate for  11GB of space...

Could anything else cause this?

[john23]

other than that i have no idea.

v2v claim space (new for me).

[XPOSE]

windows showed approx 150GB free... vmdk was showing as full in esxi.

- Installed Converter in VM

- Ran conversion of C:\ drive to new vm

- Moved newly created vmdk file to correct directory

- Removed existing VHD from VM config

- Added newly created VHD

- Booted

- Done

[tsepol]

Having the same issue.

[AndreTheGiant]

Reclaim space from thin provisioned disks is complicated. If you have vSphere 6.5 consider to move to virtual hardware 13.