Vsphere Client Used vs Not-shared vs Provisioned

duhaas · ‎04-21-2012

I've read a few different articles that try to summarize the different between the three displays under resources and am just trying to confirm. In looking in my play lab i'm looking @ a simple XP VM:

Its my understanding that used stroage should be the summation of the files in the directory on the datastore, but when I look @ this VM's datastore folder, the summation is greater 4.8GB, just trying to get a better understanding. This is a thin provisioned disk.

a_p_ · ‎04-22-2012

... but when I look @ this VM's datastore folder, the summation is greater 4.8GB, ...

Actually it is not. The values (provisioned, used, not-shared) are base-2 values. If you sum up the kb sizes for the files in the datastore and divide them by 1,024 twice (kb /1,024 => MB, MB / 1,024 => GB) you will get a result of 4.8 GB.

André

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Samcer · ‎04-22-2012

Let's say the "Provisioned storage" is the max storage required by the VM when running (I'd say worst case).

In a simple scenario (no snapshot) the size is the sum of allocated disk(s), no matter about thin or thick, plus allocated RAM (which becomes vswp while running) + logs, vmx etc.

if you want to make some test add a snapshot, you will see the "Provisioned storage" will be doubled (remember, the snapshot-delta file could increase till the parent vmdk size + the dumped RAM).

"Not shared storage" and "Used storage" is the actual storage used by your VM. Here thin vs. thick is important; you always need to consider the other files (vswp first).

"Not shared storage" and "Used storage" are different counter. Here we have to consider other kind of provisioning like linked clones.

I hope this could help

Sam

samcer| http://about.me/samcer | http://www.vm-support.it/ | @samuelecerutti

duhaas · ‎04-22-2012

Thanks much, appreciate the explanation