How to convert thin disk to thick without VM shutdown?

[vm7user]

Hello,

How to convert thin disk to thick disk (Inflate) without VM shutdown?

(disk too big, and i cannot shutdown vm for so long time)

[nachogonzalez]

You can storage vmotion to another datastore and select thick provisioning.
Keep in mind that it will affect VM performance while the vMotion / inflate process lasts.
Also, that the other datastore should have enough free space to allocate the thick disk.

Check this KB:

VMware Knowledge Base

[vm7user]

its single host with single datastore

[nachogonzalez]

you can try this using powerCli

Move-VM $VM -Datastore $destDS -DiskStorageFormat $disktype

Just replace the following items

• $VM with name of virtual machine
• $destDS with destination datastore name
• $disktype with disk type

Source: PowerCLI Change VM disk from thin to LazyZero or EagerZero Thick – Virtual Me

I'm not completely sure if it will work if you use the same source and destination datastore but it's worth a shot.

I assume you don't have vCenter, is that correct?

[scott28tt]

If the thick disk will be "lazy zeroed" it won't take long to inflate regardless of the virtual disk size and storage controller.

[nachogonzalez]

have you tried logging in to the host via SSH and running the following command?

vmfstools -j /$PATH/TO.vmdk

Note: change the path

Let me know if it works