How can I changed the default provision policy from thick to thin when creating new virtual machine?

[kobieis]

Hi All,

In the process of "create new virtual machine" you have an option to create a disk and specify the virtual disk size and provisioning policy.

The default value is Thick provision lazy zeroed.

I want to change this default value to Thin provision, so every time someone will create new machine the default value will be Thin provision.

Anybody knows how can I do it?

Which configuration file should I change?

Thanks for your help,

Kobi

[a_p_]

Afaik there's no option to configure defaults other than provisioning the VMs from templates or by automation.

André

[kobieis]

Thanks for the answer.

What do you mean by automation? how can I do that?

Thanks again,

Kobi

[a_p_]

What I'm thinking of is scripting the VM creation or using Orchestrator which should (can't verify this right now) also be able to thin provision the virtual disks.

André

[OscarDavey]

There is no way to change the default of this directly . some customization of the policy is required using scripts . if you need help let me know Best regards

[kobieis]

Hi Oscar,

I will be glad if you will be able to help me with this issue.

if you can tell me what I need to do step by step it will be great.

Thanks a lot,

Kobi

[OscarDavey]

Sure .

here is an article with a step by step of how to change provision policy from thick to thin .

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=201483...

Hope this will help you out.

Let me know if you still need help and please point this post to an Answered in case this reply helped u .

Best regards

Your Oscar

[abhilashhb]

Calling LucD.

Can you please help here with a script that will deploy vm's from templates only with thin provisioning?

[joshhutchinson]

Hi all,

looking at others post here, I had a similar issue on my lab infra that really was fixed super easy w/o the need of powering down the VM or messing with vmdk or vmx files, both of which have broken my stuff in the past. Granted, my example works if you're not running off of the built-in storage on the host (no judging here if you are ), but more on a multi-SAN arch like a NetApp or Dell 3800-series like mine, and I found this by playing around a bit in vCenter, but this is what i did.

Within vCenter (i'm using 6.5 vCenter and 6.5 ESXi):

1. Right click the VM (no powering off needed)

2. Migrate

3. Change storage only

4. Next

5. Choose a different Datastore than your VM is currently on from the "Compatible" list

6. Under "Select virtual disk format", choose "Thin Provision"

7. Under "VM storage policy", select "Datastore Default"

8. Next

9. Ensure "Storage" shows a different Datastore than your VM is currently on, and "Disk Format" displays "Thin Provision", then click "Finish".

Your VM should be migrated to a new Datastore, with Thin Provisioning, and all without turning off the VM.

Thanks!

-Josh