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    <title>topic Re: Disks format vmdks in ESXi Discussions</title>
    <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756346#M272282</link>
    <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;So for example for a database has high rate of date change so "&lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;Thick Provision Eager Zeroed" is it best solution? &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
    <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 12:26:49 GMT</pubDate>
    <dc:creator>aquila72</dc:creator>
    <dc:date>2017-05-28T12:26:49Z</dc:date>
    <item>
      <title>Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756343#M272279</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN lang="en"&gt;Thick provisioning lazy zeroed, &lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;Thick Provision Eager Zeroed and &lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;Thin Provision &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;&lt;SPAN lang="en"&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;Although I understood the difference I did not understand when to use them&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;&lt;SPAN lang="en"&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN lang="en"&gt;On what occasions do you use one rather than the other?&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 07:34:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756343#M272279</guid>
      <dc:creator>aquila72</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T07:34:57Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756344#M272280</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed&lt;/P&gt;&lt;TABLE class="DefinitionList"&gt;&lt;TBODY&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TD class="ddterm" style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;TD class="dddef"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DD_420B3E270A7C4C3F91BD07CEA9C94491" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;Creates&amp;nbsp; a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the&amp;nbsp; virtual disk is allocated when the virtual disk&amp;nbsp; is created. Data&amp;nbsp; remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is&amp;nbsp; zeroed out on demand at a later time on first write from the virtual&amp;nbsp; machine.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__P_468104FA864244D69D4EACC6711AA138" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;Using&amp;nbsp; the default flat virtual disk format does not zero out or eliminate the&amp;nbsp; possibility of recovering deleted files or restoring old data that&amp;nbsp; might be present on this allocated space. You cannot convert a flat disk&amp;nbsp; to a thin disk.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TD class="ddterm" style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DT_7D0C1FA745AD466EA0B600833709AA93" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DLENTRY_B1F02B4BDA0B41EBAD5CBE8E52327943" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__d103t71" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;Thick Provision Eager Zeroed&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;TD class="dddef"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DD_6F24D5AE23EB48A3AC3CD74E9B5009A2" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__d103t74" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;A&amp;nbsp; type of thick virtual disk that supports clustering features such as&amp;nbsp; Fault Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at&amp;nbsp; creation time. In contrast to the flat format, the data remaining on the&amp;nbsp; physical device is zeroed out when the virtual disk&amp;nbsp; is created. It&amp;nbsp; might take much longer to create disks in this format than to create&amp;nbsp; other types of disks.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TD class="ddterm" style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DT_3AFF312AD4554F48B1EE28491A8CBCD8" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DLENTRY_04D64A3EC33043B39491F4520E5BEFA7" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__d103t80" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;Thin Provision&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;TD class="dddef"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__DD_B717DB0CA7104EC1B9BA029B5D9E61A6" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;P class="Para"&gt;&lt;A name="GUID-4C0F4D73-82F2-4B81-8AA7-1DD752A8A5AC__d103t83" shape="rect"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;Use&amp;nbsp; this format to save storage space. For the thin disk, you provision as&amp;nbsp; much datastore space as the disk would require based on the value that&amp;nbsp; you enter for the disk size. However, the thin disk starts small and at&amp;nbsp; first, uses only as much datastore space as the disk&amp;nbsp; needs for its&amp;nbsp; initial operations.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;/TBODY&gt;&lt;/TABLE&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 09:02:42 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756344#M272280</guid>
      <dc:creator>MDNaseer</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T09:02:42Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756345#M272281</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;Hello Aquila,&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Summary of each disk-type:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Thin: Allocate and zero on first write&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Thick Lazy: Allocate in advance and zero on first write&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Thick Eager: Allocate and zero in advance&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;rickardnobel.se/eager-thick-vs-lazy-thick-disk-performance/ &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;When to use one over another should be based on the requirements of the VM/Application using the disks - &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Do you want to save space?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Do they need the best disk performance possible? &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Do they have a high rate of data change?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Some applications (such as those using multi-writer flag) have a requirement for Thick Eager-zeroed disks such as Oracle RAC:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;kb.vmware.com/kb/1034165&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Other applications also advise using Eager-zeroed for databases such as SAP:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/sap/sap-solutions-on-vmware-best-practices-guide.pdf&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;So essentially it comes down to what you are using these disks for and which attributes take priority.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Bob&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;-o- If you found this comment useful please click the 'Helpful' button and/or select as 'Answer' if you consider it so, please ask follow-up questions if you have any -o-&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 09:04:06 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756345#M272281</guid>
      <dc:creator>TheBobkin</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T09:04:06Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756346#M272282</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;So for example for a database has high rate of date change so "&lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;Thick Provision Eager Zeroed" is it best solution? &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 12:26:49 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756346#M272282</guid>
      <dc:creator>aquila72</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T12:26:49Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756347#M272283</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;Are there some articles for the best practice to implement it? For example in microsoft moc there are best pratice implementing solutions. Are there also in vmware?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 12:34:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756347#M272283</guid>
      <dc:creator>aquila72</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T12:34:50Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756348#M272284</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;Hello Aquila,&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;For databases like the ones I referenced above, yes Thick Eager-zeroed would be optimal.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Regarding 'best practice', these are usually advised by the OS/Application vendor (and then included in kb articles etc. on the VMware side).&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;What Guest OS/Application are you considering here?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Bob&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;-o- If you found this comment useful please click the 'Helpful' button and/or select as 'Answer' if you consider it so, please ask follow-up questions if you have any -o-&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 13:38:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756348#M272284</guid>
      <dc:creator>TheBobkin</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T13:38:13Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756349#M272285</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;I'm studying for vmware certification thank you&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2017 16:13:14 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756349#M272285</guid>
      <dc:creator>aquila72</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-28T16:13:14Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Disks format vmdks</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756350#M272286</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;SPAN style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"&gt;&lt;SPAN lang="en"&gt;Although I understood the difference I did not understand when to use them.&lt;BR /&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;Let me add some important details that you do not hear every where:&lt;BR /&gt;In case you use a standalone ESXi host with local storage only and you run into a problem with the VMFS-filesystem the major difference between the 3 types is:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;TABLE border="1" class="jiveBorder" style="border: 1px solid #c6c6c6; width: 100%;"&gt;&lt;TBODY&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TH style="text-align: left; background-color: #f2f2f2; color: #505050; padding: 6px;" valign="middle"&gt;provisioning type&lt;/TH&gt;&lt;TH style="text-align: left; background-color: #f2f2f2; color: #505050; padding: 6px;" valign="middle"&gt;chances to recover after a VMFS-corruption&lt;/TH&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TD style="padding: 6px;"&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Eager zeroed thick&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;TD style="padding: 6px;"&gt;good - if the vmdk is not fragmented it can be recovered without any loss&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TD style="padding: 6px;"&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Lazy zeroed thick&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;TD style="padding: 6px;"&gt;good - if the vmdk is not fragmented it can be recovered but the result is dirty&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;TR&gt;&lt;TD style="padding: 6px;"&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Thin&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;TD style="padding: 6px;"&gt;very poor - a thin provisioned vmdk without healthy VMFS-metadata is nothing but a large pile of garbage&lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;/TBODY&gt;&lt;/TABLE&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;BR /&gt;Ulli&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 May 2017 14:22:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Disks-format-vmdks/m-p/2756350#M272286</guid>
      <dc:creator>continuum</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-05-30T14:22:12Z</dc:date>
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