Thickness as Thin provisioned disks

Similar Questions

• Question about thin provisioned disks

  I did some searching but can't find specific answers, I need and I apologize in advance if these questions are public knowledge. I know also my setup is very small compared to most houses VMWare normally using these forums, but we are moving slowly in the 2nd Decade of the 21st century (or try).

  I have a new install ESXi 5 and move during one ESX3 host that has about a dozen of VMs on it.  I recently built vCenter host servers and my future view connection server.  I'm kind to vCenter again as my previous installation of ESX 3 was a single server and us were not investing in the vCenter at the time option (missed a lot of features and ease of upgrade during this transition, but 20/20 declining).  I'm a little green in using vCenter so take pitty on my ignorance.

  It's more time than I wanted to and I just want to know the best way to change these 2 servers (recently built and configured systems Win 2008 R2) to thin provisioned disks.  I need to keep all the storage space I can and beyond the obvious problem of being able to provide more space than you physically, I have no problem to do so (in addition to get them changed).  If there are negatives I'm missing, please report them to me.  The possiblities that I see are:

  The clone and thin provision then delete the originals.

  Use the stand-alone converter on them (from above).

  Completely rebuild thin provisioned with disks.

  If someone can give me a quick list of possible problems and pitfalls for these opportunities or to get to a better suggestion, please do so and thanks in advance.

  Manual of Clark

  PRIMOS Inc.

  Since you have storage vMotion the clone or standalone VMware converter are both viable options.   Not sure about the disadvantages of these options.

  You didn't say what kind of server it is, but I'm always careful about the cloning of the domain controllers.   Without the option for storage vmotion I rebuild a DC from scratch.

  Post edited by: mittim12

• Backup errors with backup of thin provisioned disks on ESXi 5.1

  Hello

  I try to set up a backup solution for two servers in ESXi 5.1. (free version).

  I have installed and configured the ghettoVCB successfully and everything seems to be ok.

  However, when I start to create a backup, the process would end with an error :-(

  It didn't matter if the server is enabled or disabled, I get the same result.

  All data warehouses are local, 2 x free WD500GB with plenty of space.

  There is no snapshot, anything that could (in my eyes) prevent a good backup.

  The server works perfectly, when turned on.

  I'd appreciate any useful comment. Thanks in advance! The log is attached.

  / vmfs/volumes/519fceb8-3d39150e-2D0F-001999eeb339/ghettoVCB-Master #./ghettoVCB.sh f vms_to_backup
  Recording output to ' / tmp/ghettoVCB-2013-05-25_20-56-28-324192.log '...
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: = ghettoVCB NEWSPAPER BEGIN =.

  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VERSION = 2013_01_11_0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - GHETTOVCB_PID = 324192
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_BACKUP_VOLUME/vmfs/volumes/backup/ghettoBackups =
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_BACKUP_ROTATION_COUNT = 3
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION = 2013-05-25_20-56-28
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - DISK_BACKUP_FORMAT = thin
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - ENABLE_HARD_POWER_OFF = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - ITER_TO_WAIT_SHUTDOWN = 3
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - POWER_DOWN_TIMEOUT = 5
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - SNAPSHOT_TIMEOUT = 15
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - LOG_LEVEL = info
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - BACKUP_LOG_OUTPUT = /tmp/ghettoVCB-2013-05-25_20-56-28-324192.log
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - ENABLE_COMPRESSION = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_SNAPSHOT_MEMORY = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_SNAPSHOT_QUIESCE = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - ALLOW_VMS_WITH_SNAPSHOTS_TO_BE_BACKEDUP = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VMDK_FILES_TO_BACKUP = all
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_SHUTDOWN_ORDER =
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - VM_STARTUP_ORDER =
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info: CONFIG - EMAIL_LOG = 0
  2013-05-25 20:56:29 - info:
  2013-05-25 20:56:35 - info: start the backup for server W2003
  Destination disk format: thin provisioned VMFS
  Cloning disk ' / vmfs/volumes/519fceb8-3d39150e-2d0f-001999eeb339/w2003-server (2) 2/w2003 Server _1.vmdk'...
  Clone: 36% of fact.
  2013-05-25 20:59:34 - info: ERROR: error in the backup of "/ vmfs/volumes/519fceb8-3d39150e-2d0f-001999eeb339/w2003-server (2) 2/w2003 Server _1.vmdk ' to W2003 Server
  Destination disk format: thin provisioned VMFS
  Cloning disk ' / vmfs/volumes/WD500GB-1/W2003-Doma¤ne/w2003-server (2) hard '...
  Clone: 66% of fact.
  2013-05-25 21:08:59 - info: ERROR: error in the backup of "/ vmfs/volumes/WD500GB-1/W2003-Doma¤ne/w2003-server (2) hard" to W2003 Server
  2013-05-25 21:08:59 - Info: backup time: 12,40 Minutes
  2013-05-25 21:08:59 - info: ERROR: impossible to W2003 server from backup because of the error in VMDK backup!

  2013-05-25 21:09 - info: # final status: ERROR: No. VMs saved! ######

  2013-05-25 21:09 - info: = ghettoVCB JOURNAL END =.

  / vmfs/volumes/519fceb8-3d39150e-2D0F-001999eeb339/ghettoVCB-Master #.

  > However, when I start to create a backup, the process would end with an error :-(

  This is not correct.  Depending on your position, you've got to 66%, until he ended with an error.

  I have the same problem. In my case, I make a virtual disk full and mount it with Server 2003 for project a NFS volume.  I use GhettoVCB, as you do.  It uses the standard vkmfstools in the script to make the clone/backup.  I have proven that the problem also occurs when you use the command line vkmfstools.  GhettoVCB has the bad habit of you cache the error code.  The error code is he ran out of disk space, which we both did not happen.  Once the problem occurs, the only way I could fix is to delete the virtual disk and start over, however, the problem will come back.  The problem didn't surface until what I moved to ESXi 4.0 5.1 on the servers.  Through this process, the hardware off the VMS version did not change, nor dare, because I may need to take 5.1 and back to 4.x.

• Is it possible to migrate a virtual machine to thin provisioned disk?

  I have about 100 VM in a resource pool dedicated to called "Archive"... Well, archiving.  These virtual machines are currently powered off but every now and then we will get pulled for a developer to work on (they are for the most part, the virtual computer with client customizations if they are changed about once a year).  I'm quickly running out of space on this SAN but all discs are thick provisioned and using the disc is maybe 20-30% on average.  Also, I want to move them to a new large store of data I created for them.

  Of course, I choose Migrate & gt; Change store data & gt; Thin provision in vSphere Format and I'm done.  However, it would be nice to not do this 100 times.

  Move-VM does not seem to be capable of this, and I have not been able to find a workaround.  Is there a way to convert the thin and then perhaps Move-VM? Or I'll just on this all wrong.

  Thank you!

  You can try this script?

  He's moving vms to data store 'EMCSAN:Datastore01' trying to change the format of storage for Thin

  $dsView = Get-Datastore -Name "EMCSAN:Datastore01" | Get-View -Property Name
  
  Get-VM  | % {
  $vmView = $_ | Get-View -Property Name
  
  $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRelocateSpec
  $spec.datastore =  $dsView.MoRef
  $spec.transform = "sparse"
  
  $vmView.RelocateVM($spec, $null)
  }
  

  / Yasen

• Can't P2V to a thin provisioned disks copied non-zero'ed crashes?

  I need P2V a server that has recently had a lot of deleted data.

  If a make my thin target supplied disk, will be the layout of converter for these unused space but not zero would be blocked?

  As a question, making the thin target instead of thickness negatively influence the performance of the copy?

  Yes. Use sdelete on Windows or dd on Linux, to zero free space before you run the P2V.

• Cannot increase the size of thin provisioned disk

  Hello

  I am currently using vSphere, and I have a server that I am trying to increase the space allocated 40 GB to 50 GB. The problem is the option to increase the provisioned size is grayed out and I can't seem to understand this.

  I already checked to see if there is a snapshot, there are none.

  I also checked that the drive is a scsi and NOT an IDE drive.

  I'm fresh out of ideas and google searches return only guides on how to do what I've done, so any help is appreciated. Attached are the parameters of the hard disk, and the Snapshot Manager shears.

  Welcome to the community,

  According to the file name of the virtual disk in the first screenshot, the virtual computer runs on an active snapshot. The Snapshot Manager can not always show all snapshots, then take a look at the data store of the virtual machine to see if there are files... - 00000 x hard (snapshot).

  To get rid of the snapshots, create a new snapshot and run "Delete All" since the Snapshot Manager to commit all the snapshots on the basic disk.

  André

• Add thin provisioned disks

  I need to create a script to do the following steps:

  1. turn on a virtual machine

  2 remove the disc

  3 Add the service end disc

  4. turn on.

  I need to exclude VMS with snapshots.

  Should I call if I want only to a certain group of VM from a .csv file?

  If there is no agreement on behalf of the guest that you can use to select these 60-70 guests then you better use a CSV file.

  The script would then become something like that

  Import-Csv "C:\vms.csv" | %{
       $vm = Get-VM $_.Name
       Stop-VM -VM $vm -Confirm:$false
       Get-HardDisk -VM $vm | Remove-HardDisk -Confirm:$false
       New-HardDisk -VM $vm -CapacityKB (20 * 1MB) -ThinProvisioned:$true -Confirm:$false
       Start-VM -VM $vm
  }
  

  you use a file CSV with this layout provided

  Name
  guest1
  guest2
  ...
  

  ____________

  Blog: LucD notes

  Twitter: lucd22

• Models of thin provision

  Looking to change my form of models thick to thin provisioned disks. The benefits are that they occupy less space and faster deployment.

  I have Win3K3 and Win3K8 models. Models have been created initially with ESX 3.5 so that they always have hardware virtual version 4. We

  are in the process of upgrading our ESX hosts to version 4.0 U1. Our virtual Center is already updated to version 4.0 U1. No downside to

  do this?

  Mike

  It is actually better to store your models as thin and then convert them into thickness during deployment.   They will use less space on the LUN model and should deploy more quickly.

  -MattG

  If you find this information useful, please give points to "correct" or "useful".

• How to convert a thickness thin provision

  Hello

  I converted physical machine to virtual .during this process, I chose to files on the hard drive thick delivery.

  now I want to convert all files to provision thin to save storage.how can I convert thick to thin provision.

  I haven't used this link procedure Storage vMotion is much easier, and yes it free your place if you go thin thickness.

  This link may be also useful: http://www.thelowercasew.com/reclaiming-disk-space-with-storage-vmotion-and-thin-provisioning

• Thickness of thin formatting on the same data store?

  Hi all

  is it possible with vCenter to convert thick to thin disc on the same data store format?

  and how?

  Thank you very much

  VMware KB: Change the thick or thin provisioning of a virtual disk

  Please check the useful and accurate.

  Marc

• OnThick space provisioned disks?

  I have configured my VM thick, but most of them show space put into service between 20% and 60% more than the space used. The data store is 200 GB pledged.  My understanding is that space put into service comes into play with thin provisioned disks, not thick. Can someone explain to me why it took so much space in service?  We are on the latest version of VMware.

  Thank you!

  Take it back storage provisioned the VMDK for the disk, the file etc vswap isn't just the disc.

  For example, if we have a virtual machine with a hard disk of 4 GB space of the thick put in service and windows 2008 R2 with 4 GB of RAM then the disc put into service will be around 8,11 GB

  Used storage will show 4.00 GB as this is the file to disk. The rest of the space put into service is mainly the vswap 4 GB file.

  Start the virtual machine and changes in storage provisioned to 8.05 as does the storage used such that it created vswap files.

  It off again and changes in storage provisioned to 8.12 GB and used (s) back up to 4 GB

  Set size in service has increased to 100% not sure de.01 why but could be the journal file, or something.

  But your space is higher than the discs it's file of vswap RAM the virtual machine it is either in the total of 20 to 60%.

  FYI, changing limits or action does not affect the space put into service, because it is for physical memory, not the size of the file vswap.

  The only way to reduce the space put into service is either to reduce hard drive size VMDK or reduce RAM assigned to the virtual machine.

  fall virtual machine up to 2 GB and put into service space is now 6.05 when the virtual machine is running.

• Thin Provisioning

  I'm looking for the pros and cons of the use of provisioning of the disks. In ESX 3.5, there was the problem of the migration of records between data warehouses in which records have been changed from thin in. thick. This I understand has been fixed in ESX 4.0 U1. From what I read, I need to recreate my datstores for Thin Provisioning and then I can migrate live discs from thick to thin. What are some of the gothca otherwise than on commissioning?

  Thank you

  Mike

  Hello.

  What are some of the gothca otherwise than on commissioning?

  For me, the oversupply is the largest.  It creates a thing to have to monitor and take into account during operations.  Creation of alarms is essential, if you follow this path.

  You cannot use them with VMware FT.

  When a thin provisioned disk grows, a SCSI reserve be held.

  The way which drives develop and activities which develop, are also important understand but not necessarily to a witch hunt.  Defragments, copy large files and other normal operations will cause thin disks to grow.  Delete the files from the virtual machine won't give you the back of the space.  The free space can be recovered, but it will take extra work. Some virtual machines just do lend themselves well to it, because of this.  We can expect big savings and not actually bring.

  If performance (including writing intensive apps) are a top concern, so it is better not to use thin discs put in service as well.  You can learn more on this subject in the study of the Performance of VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning.

  Good luck!

• Thin Provisioning not reduce size of backup

  I use ghettoVCB to save some of my virtual machines. I changed some of these virtual machines to use a provisioning in an attempt to reduce the size of backup. When I browse my store of data using vSphere Client, I see that the thin provisioned disks take less space. However, when I go back to a NFS store on a Windows Server 2008 R2, backup sizes are the same as they were when I used thick provisioning. Is this normal on a Windows NFS share? I did specify a provisioning for ghettoVCB.

  I ran sdelete and VMWare Converter to try to reduce the disks; This decreases the size of the disk that I see in the browser to store data, but the size of the backups on the NFS share was always the same.

  I don't have access to an NFS server ATM, but tests on a ZFS volume w/de-dupe that is exported outside like NFS, I can confirm that on the host ESX virtual machine appears as thin provisioned and when you do ls - lha on the VMDK is 8 GB and not 0 GB, but when you look at the free data store no space has been consumed during the creation of this new virtual machine. It all depends on your server and it is the configuration of NFS, I agree with RParker, you'll want to enable deduplication on your NFS server if it is supported. Put into operation end is handled differently on the NFS Server vs on VMFS volume and it dictated by the server NFS itself on how it is configured to manage a provisioning.

  =========================================================================

  William Lam

  VMware vExpert 2009

  Scripts for VMware ESX/ESXi and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

  Twitter: @lamw

  repository scripts vGhetto

  Introduction to the vMA (tips/tricks)

  Getting started with vSphere SDK for Perl

  VMware Code Central - Scripts/code samples for developers and administrators

  VMware developer community

  If you find this information useful, please give points to "correct" or "useful".

• Thin provisioned VMDK consume all available space

  Hello

  • Server: Win 2008 R2 with SP1 (file server)
  • Storage: VMDK on VMFS5 datastore (thin provisioned), which underlies the SAN fiber storage
  • vSphere: vCenter Server Standard 5, ESXi 5.0 Patch 2 (build 515841)

  ... So, I have a VM file server running Windows 2008 R2 with SP1.  The system (c) partition has been successfully thin (VMDK using 13 GB to 40 GB).

  However, for all subsequent hard disks virtual created on the server, the NTFS partition is very slow to get into shape - and the actual size of the VMDK creeps slowly up to the size of the VHD (you can see the gradual rise of the VMDK size in the browser to store data during the formatting process).

  The VMFS data store that we create new virtual hard disks is version 5.  All virtual machines with virtual hard disks on VMFS version 3 seem to be supplied thin OK.

  Nobody knows what could happen here?

  Hello

  Do you use quick format?

  Otherwise, your score will take up any space. Check here:VMware KB: using thin provisioned disks with virtual machines

  "If a guest operating system needs to use a virtual disk, the must invited first operating system partition and format the drive in a file system it can recognize." Depending on the format selected in the guest operating system, the format can cause the disc thin provisioned in full size.

  For example, if you have a drive end with a Microsoft Windows operating system implemented and format the drive, unless you explicitly choose to fast formatting, Microsoft Windows format tool written information to all sectors on the disk, which in turn inflates the disc thin provisioned in full size. "

  Kind regards

  Julien.

• Exchange 2010 - is thin provisioned supported or only zeroeager?

  It seems to be conflicting information anywhere on the internet.  When configuring storage for the newspapers and the Exchange databases, disks must always be zeroeager or are provisioed thin discs supported these days in VMWare?  MS say this extension dynamic disks are not supported, but which is under Hyper-V

  See attached PDF.

  Q: are there requirements around storage for my virtualized Exchange solution design?
  A: VMFS on iSCSI and Fibre Channel storage is supported, as are the physical maps and virtual-mode raw device. The use of thin provisioned disks or network - storage devices is not supported by Microsoft for virtualized Exchange deployments.

  Confirmation by Microsoft;

  http://support.Microsoft.com/?kbid=897615