Adding a cloned disk becomes thick provisioned

[bazcurtis178]

Hi,

I am running ESXi in my home lab. I am using the CLI to clone a server. When I add the disk to a new machine that I cloned from a thin disk, it comes in as thick. It was thin provisioned when the disk was made, The CLI says it is going to be thin. What have I missed? I am taking the clone from a snapshot. Below is the command I used and the result.

[root@localhost:~] vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/Internal_SSD/”Windows 2012 r2 Template”/”Windows 2012 r2 Template_0-000001.vmdk” /vmfs/volumes/USB-Datastore/”Windows 2012 r2 Template”/”Windows 2012 r2 Template.vmdk” -d thin
Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned
Cloning disk ‘/vmfs/volumes/Internal_SSD/Windows 2012 r2 Template/Windows 2012 r2 Template_0-000001.vmdk’…
Clone: 100% done.

This is my version of ESXi

Version:

1.8.0

Build number:

4516221

ESXi version:

6.5.0

ESXi build number:

4887370

[DavoudTeimouri]

Hi,

Read my post about linked-clone machines in ESXi: https://www.teimouri.net/linked-clone-virtual-machine-without-vmware-horizon-view/

[bazcurtis178]

Hi,

I appreciate the feedback, but I don't understand where the linked clones comes in? This is a full clone of a thin disk. Did I miss something?

Best wishes

Michael

[Dee006]

Hi,

Can you to try add the bus logic at the end of vmkfstools and see if it works?

Cloning and converting virtual machine disks with vmkfstools (1028042) | VMware KB

[bazcurtis178]

Thanks for the feedback. I am trying that, but get an Extra argument at the end of the command line error. I am using the following

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/Internal_SSD/"Windows 2012 r2 Template"/"Windows 2012 r2 Template_0-000001.vmdk" /vmfs/volumes/USB-Datastore/"Windows 2012 r2 Template"/"Windows 2012 r2 Template.vmdk" -d thin -a buslogic

[bazcurtis178]

Hi,

Just another update. I have cloned a disk from the SSD to the SSD. Still the same result.

I noticed that the disk is thin provisioned after the clone according the datastore, see attached screenshot. If I check the size on the datastore it is the full 40GB on the datastore. The Hardware Configuration says it is thin, see attached screenshot.

Best wishes

Michael

[Dee006]

Hi Mic,

Have you changed any configuration in vmdk file?