thin provision VM flat filke size

[tdubb123]

I got a thin provisioned VM. 100GB C drive

but only has 20GB used

why does the flat file size shows 100GB?

[mulcas]

Hi,

Don't really get what you mean with flat size and your question... but if you configure a 100GB vDisk for the VM, the OS will show 100GB, the datastore, where the VM is located, will show your current usage and will increase on demand.

From your VM > Summary, you'll see the storage usage.

Cheers,

mulcas

[a_p_]

Thin provisioning is a file system feature, i.e. not comparable to e.g. sparse files in VMware Workstation.

So when you look at the files using a tool that's not aware of this feature (or which doesn't expose it), you will only see the provisioned size.

If you want to see the real size of a flat file from e.g. the command line, you may run e.g. ls -lisa which will show the used blocks (in kB) in the second column.

André

[tdubb123]

its still showing 60GB. OS is not using 60GB

I dont see where the provisioned size it showing in the web client

also powercli shows the same

60GB

[SupreetK]

Was it using 60GB previously and now it has reduced to 20GB? If yes, you might have to run SDelete (or FSTRIM) inside the guest OS and 'vmkfstools -K' on the affected disk to punch zeroes. Post this, you can run <du -sah ./*-flat.vmdk> from within the VM folder and the disk should report the similar utilization to that being reported inside the guest OS.

Please consider marking this answer as "correct" or "helpful" if you think your questions have been answered.

Cheers,

Supreet

[tdubb123]

no this was a clean ISO OS installation