6.0

Disable Hardware Acceleration for Block Storage Devices
On your host, the hardware acceleration for block storage devices is enabled by default. You can use the
vSphere Client advanced settings to disable the hardware acceleration operations.
As with any advanced settings, before you disable the hardware acceleration, consult with the VMware
support team.
Prerequisites
Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Client inventory panel, select the host.
2 Click the Configuration tab, and click Advanced Settings under Software.
3 Change the value for any of the options to 0 (disabled):
n
VMFS3.HardwareAcceleratedLocking
n
DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove
n
DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit
Storage Thin Provisioning
With ESXi, you can use two models of thin provisioning, array-level and virtual disk-level.
Thin provisioning is a method that optimizes storage utilization by allocating storage space in a flexible on-
demand manner. Thin provisioning contrasts with the traditional model, called thick provisioning. With
thick provisioning, large amount of storage space is provided in advance in anticipation of future storage
needs. However, the space might remain unused causing underutilization of storage capacity.
The VMware thin provisioning features help you eliminate storage underutilization problems at the
datastore and storage array level.
Create Thin Provisioned Virtual Disks
When you need to save storage space, you can create a virtual disk in thin provisioned format. The thin
provisioned virtual disk starts small and grows as more disk space is required.
This procedure assumes that you are creating a typical or custom virtual machine using the New Virtual
Machine wizard.
Prerequisites
Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system or an ESXi host.
You can create thin disks only on the datastores that support disk-level thin provisioning.
Procedure
u
In the Create a Disk dialog box, select Thin Provision.
A virtual disk in thin format is created.
What to do next
If you created a virtual disk in the thin format, you can later inflate it to its full size.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client
336 VMware, Inc.