Free space error when inflating disk

[ManuGC87]

Hi!

I have a Dell R340 Server running ESXI HV 6.7 u3.

The server has a seconday datastore created on mirrored 2TB HDDs (Hardware RAID)

I have a thin provisioned VMDK ( 1 TB capacity / 0.99 TB actual filesize) which I'd like to inflate.

The datastore has over 300GB of free space.

When I try to inflate the VMDK file I get the following error: "Sorry, the inflated disk size is greater than the available space on this datastore. Please free some space on HDD and try again"

I've checked, re-checked, re-re checked that there are actually 300gb+ of free space in the datastore and that the actual VMDK would only need 1GB to be inflated.

What could be the reason for ESXI incorrectly informing that there is not enough space for the file to be inflated? Any workarounds?

Best!

[jburen]

Maybe a temporary file is created that would be 0.99 TB large... And that would not fit. If you want to inflate the disk manually maybe this can help you: https://blah.cloud/virtualisation/converting-vmware-thin-disks-to-thick-using-inflate/

[ManuGC87]

That for you answer. I guess a temp file could be the reason. Have you read any docs on this?

[jburen]

I have searched docs.vmware.com but I can only find information about deflating thin provisioned disks but without the underlying mechanism.