Moving VM's between data stroage doesn't maintain thin provisioning.

[bar1_]

Hi!

so i am busy upgrading the storage on my ESXI server and while moving files from my 512 ssd to my 1TB ssd i found that the disk is full after moving very few vms....i was very confused as i am doubling my disk space, to find out that the moved vm's are no longer thin provisioned.

can those vm's change back to thin provisioning?

what is the proper procedure to move vm's between datastoage?

[scott28tt]

How did you do the original move?

[bar1_]

Browse datastore, move....

[dimyke]

vMotion would be the easiest way to do this move as you will have the option to choose the virtual disk format.

I will assume you do not have a vCenter so you will have to work a round the fact that the default behaviour is to create a thick provisioned disk.

For example you could export and import every VM, that would work to keep thin provisioning.

Another option would be to convert your disks from thick to thin after the move through CLI with vmkfstools
vmkfstools -i <source.vmdk> <destination.vmdk> -d thin

Kind regards
Dimitri