datastore full, okay to do storage vmotion?

[xbradshr]

I have a VM with a data disk on a full datastore(around 180MB free). I was thinking of doing a hot storage vmotion to another datastore. Assming the target datastore has enough room, will this work?

I am checking that the storage vmotion process does not use up any disk space on the source(I think the process looks for block changes on the source). This is ESXi 4.1

[weinstein5]

I believe there is a sbapshot taken so you will need to free up space or you will have to power down the VM and manually copy the virtual disk to the new location -

[mcowger]

ESXi 4.1 will use change block tracking, not a snapshot, which is pretty efficient.

If you have no real disk activity it *should* be fine, but if it were my environment I'd follow David's recommendation and free up some space before you do it or shut it down, because running out of space would be a rough scene.

ESXi 5 would actually use the mirror driver, and not require additional space on the source.

[Shakaal · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you have VM's running on the datastore you can shut them down(incase if it is possible) this will give you more space on the datastore as this will remove the swap files for the VM's.

Also if possible please get one extra lun presented, and extend the Datastore.

Regards

[nava_thulasi39]

Hi,

Extend the Datastore is not recommended mostly as it may lead to performance issues.

As well as there is no chance to break the extend also, right?