VM ware Converter Cloning or Copying query

[Ajay_Nabh]

Hi All

This query came to mind due to issue I have of a 558GB VMDK file. Now Scene is I have this 558GB VMDK file which has around 271GB data in it and rest is just free space. I need to migrate it to another host and I want to save time as much as I can as this is 24/7 VM server 1.04 machine. first Question

If I migrate whole vmdk via converter, will converter create a 558 VMDK file and and copy 271GB data or converter just dump whole VMDK regardless of data in it?

You think, if this will be fine during convert machine process I shrink vmdk file size using converter and let converter complete the rest, which means it will only copy the size I define in converter process

Any hints will be a help

Thanks to all

Ajay

[IamTHEvilONE]

When using converter, installed on a physical/virtual Windows machine, note the following:

Situation 1 - If you increase or maintain the size of a volume, Converter copies data block-by-block

Situation 2 - If you reduce the size of a volume by at least a couple MB, Converter copies data file-by-file (which can be significantly less)

The size reduction should go fine with converter 3.0.3, and I stress it's for Windows Only as Linux is not supported for resizing, so it would have to copy all the data ..... 558 GB of it.

If the target for this migration is an ESX host, please be aware that a VMFS3 volume will need to have at least a 4mb block size to hold a VMDK that is greater than 512 GB.

1 MB block = 256 GB

2 MB block = 512 GB

4 MB block = 1024 GB

8 MB block = 2048 GB

hopefully, that covers most of your questions.

[Ajay_Nabh]

Thanks a lot for yuor helpfull comments. I Just want to clear this for my self, Which is

1 if you increase or do not change .vmdk size then it just copies whole .vmdk regardless of data in it?

2 if you reduce then it will create disk on destination with the specified size and only copy files unlike aboove?

one quick question, if i create LUN with 800GB and configure it with 1 MB block what are other consequesnses apart from that the biggest of vmdk i can have is 256GB

Thanks a lot for your help

Ajay

[weinstein5]

converter gives you the opportunity to resize disks - so you should be able to convert this and resize the disk -

[IamTHEvilONE]

1 if you increase or do not change .vmdk size then it just copies whole .vmdk regardless of data in it?

Correct. It will copy the RAW block data from the source to destination. If you increase the size of that volume, it will generate blank space at the end of the new vmdk.

2 if you reduce then it will create disk on destination with the specified size and only copy files unlike above?

If you reduce ... it makes a new disk at the destination, and then copies all of the files from the source to the destination disk. it's just like if you copied files between to computers using copy and paste.

one quick question, if i create LUN with 800GB and configure it with 1 MB block what are other consequences apart from that the biggest of vmdk i can have is 256GB

There probably won't be any huge downsides. The big restriction is the maximum file size of 256 GB when it comes to converter .... though that's not my area of expertise. However, we do have a deployment guide and other good documentation for that side of the house.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_san_design_deploy.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35.html

[Ajay_Nabh]

Thanks for your time and effort. It answers my questions

Cheers

Ajay