Comments on: Storage VMotion and moving to a Thin Provisioned disk

By: AQU

AQU — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:44:35 +0000

We have created a scheduled task initiating a Storage vMotion while converting to a Thin Disc (Sdelete had already run). All goes fine untill in the end thse disc is still thick and no space has been gained.

When we do the same manually with the same useraccount, all goes fine. What’s wrong?

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:36:00 +0000

I read the following tip which states
“Avoid doing operating systems disk defragmentations on VMs with thin disks. This will cause the VM disk file to grow quickly which may fill up your data store before you can react to any alarms that the process may trigger.” Found here: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/pointers-for-using-thin-provisioned-disks/

Your script does a defrag prior to the sdelete. Any suggestions regarding this?

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:15:47 +0000

Where can I find more information on this??
After we get vsphere installed (waiting for SAN to get on HCL) I want to change as much as possible to thin-provisioned disks and be more economical with storage space.

By: wpatton

wpatton — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:27:38 +0000

Duncan,

Are you aware of any way to see size/blocks filled to allow you to verify this against the actual used space within the VM? Migrating to Thin Provisioning and then shrinking the disk should do it, but before we do this we are tasked with estimating savings.

Thank you.

By: wpatton

wpatton — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:37:32 +0000

Duncan,

Thank you very much for clarifying this. Great information. It was something we were just debating internally.