Time to shift machines-Upgrade infrastructure(Shrink existing VMs and move them to NFS)

[nitin_m]

Hello

We will be moving ESX 3.5 local store (hosting approx 18 machines- all XP) to 2xESX3.5+ NFS.

We will be using open-e (their free 1TB DSS lite) to host NFS. This NFS will be shared between these 2xESX3(I am using NFS becasue NFS is better then iSCSI when it comes to sharing more than 15 vmdks, other than that, I will just copy VMDKs to USB hdd as backup strategy)

I am planning 6-12hours downtime to perform the following -

a) Use Svmotion to move virtual machines from 1xESX3.5 to shared NFS.(I will attach the NFS datastore to do the motion between local to NFS)

Now my question is -

All the VMs on this local store are flat disks. Also, all my VMs are 30GB (but actually using only 10GB). So, how do I shrink the disks(max size=20GB) as well as thinprovision them on our new NFS store?

(one stone 2 birds - shrink 30GB to 20Gb and store on new NFS as thinkprovisioned)

[azn2kew]

You can shrink it using this guide.

"Using VMware Virtual Disk Manager" on page 139

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems LLC.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[nitin_m]

Link says page not found.

(PS - I know I can use "shrink disk" in vmware tools inside the VM - But for flat disks - It doesnt do anything.

Stefan - I have gone through this page

Is Vmware converter the ONLY option?

[kjb007]

Here's an updated link.

The link is for disk manager, which is a gsx/ws tool for managing disks. But, in order to use it, you will have to mount your disk on a client machine, which would most likely require you to pull in the disks using something like converter. If you're using converter, and use the standalone vm option, then it will allow you to create thinly provisioned disks. You can then copy your disks over to your NFS datastore. I'm not sure how well this process will work, though, or how much of a performance hit you'll take for using thin disks.

-KjB

[kjb007]

Try this, it seems to be an easier way to go.