Just a quick recap. Thin provisioning in this context means that even though a VM could have a 20 GB harddisk assigned, the actual size of the VMDK would only be the size it actually uses. As it turns out, this is possible in VI 3.5 environments as well! Before you start throwing keyboards at me, I know that it is not the best idea from a performance perspective to "thin provision" VMDKs in this way but it can be very handy sometimes as well. Just so you know.

The way it works is that when you create a VMDK for use with a virtual machine, you create is via a commandline. This is because you cannot do this from the GUI, the Virtual Infrastructure client.
Say you wanted to create a VMDK that would grow until 20 GB but only take up the space that it really uses. You would need to:

1. Login to the Service Console of the server

2. Run: vmkfstools -c 20G -d thin /vmfs/volumes/datastore/virtualmachine_name/virtualmachine_disk1.vmdk

3. Login to the VI client and add the existing disk you just created to the VM template. 

This can also be scripted of course. I got this tip from Leo Raikhman. He also has some other tips on creating VM templates in a smart way. In that light I would also definately recommend reading the VM templates for VDI creation guide of oy my colleagues wrote.

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comment form

Comment
Name
Email
Website
Write the displayed characters
	Add Comment