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miikkeeb
Contributor
Contributor

DataStore

Ok so at one of my satelite offices I only have a single node. This node has 2 datastores. The extra disk that is on the server and then an ISCSI share I presented to it. Since this is a single node I can not really do any vmotion or use templates.

What I have been doing to create new machines is I have left one image with just a standard install of my server OS. If I need to bring up a new machine I will take the files from my ISCSI datastore and copy them over to my Local datastore. Rename the folder that contains all the files and then cut and paste this folder back on my ISCSI Datastore. My ISCSI Datastore is 256gb. Well I just notice now after doing this for the third time that the size of my datastore has not really decreased. It decreased when I created the first initial image. But each copied image since has not decreased the size of my Datastore. Any ideas on what is going on?

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

It would not decrease the size of the datastore but could decrease the used space on the datastore. So you did the following:

copy from iSCSI to Local

modified local to new name

copy from Local to iSCSI using new name

Not sure that would decrease the used space but increase it. Perhaps I am not seeing the question you are asking.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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wpatton
Expert
Expert

Do these new folders contain .vmdk files?

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miikkeeb
Contributor
Contributor

Yes sorry I guess was not that clear.

So when I copied the folder with VMDK files in it I had 233gb free space on my ISCSI. Once the file was on the local store I renamed the folder with the VMDk files. Then moved the folder back to my ISCSI. Once the folder was back on my ISCSI store I still had 233gb of free space. Each guest machine is configured as 20gb so by moving that file back on my ISCSI it should have then dropped me down to 213gb free space remaining for more guest machines.

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miikkeeb
Contributor
Contributor

yes it is the folder that has the vmdk files for that guest machine. So once I moved them back to the ISCSI I then clicked on the VMK and said add to inventory and I still had the exact same amount of space as I did when I started.

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

Yes that is odd.... I think you should look at /vmfs/volumes/NameofISCSIStore and determine if you are just copying over existing files.... What does 'vdf -h' from the SC show.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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wpatton
Expert
Expert

Only other thing that came to mind was, are you using a Netapp device with NFS? If so, it has de-duplication and this will cut down significantly on the size of copied disk files.

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