Deploying a thin provisioned VM from a fat provisioned template via .NET

[jswager1]

Our system: vSphere 4.0, ESXi 4.0, using PowerCLI 4.0 - but not the PowerShell command line. We're using a C# program that uses the .NET objects that PowerShell uses - not sure how much of a different that makes.

I'm attempt to deploy a VM with thin provisioned disks from a template that has fat provisioned disks, just like in the vSphere client. The particular bit of code that is supposed to control this is as follows (shortened for brevity):

VirtualMachineCloneSpec clonespec = new VirtualMachineCloneSpec();

clonespec.Location = new VirtualMachineRelocateSpec();

clonespec.Location.Datastore = datastore.MoRef;

clonespec.Location.Pool = pool.MoRef;

clonespec.Location.Transform = VirtualMachineRelocateTransformation.sparse;

....

template.CloneVM(targetFolder.MoRef, requestItem.SessionName, clonespec);

Using this code, the resulting VM is always deployed with fat disks, just like the template. I've confirmed - via the vSphere client - that the data storage device being used does support thin provisioned disks.

Does anyone know why this doesn't work?

[LucD]

This definitely works from the vSphere client.

Perhaps use Onyx and check if there is anything missing from your code.

____________

Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[jswager1]

Found my own solution. Reordering the logic seemed to fix the problem. Here was the changed lines that made it work:

irtualMachineCloneSpec clonespec = new VirtualMachineCloneSpec();

clonespec.Location = new VirtualMachineRelocateSpec();

clonespec.Location.Transform = VirtualMachineRelocateTransformation.sparse; // This location seemed to be the key.

clonespec.Location.Datastore = datastore.MoRef;

clonespec.Location.Pool = pool.MoRef;

....

template.CloneVM(targetFolder.MoRef, requestItem.SessionName, clonespec);

And now it works.