6.0.1

You can specify the following suboptions with the -c option.
n
-a species the controller that a virtual machine uses to communicate with the virtual disks. You can
choose between BusLogic, LSI Logic, IDE, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual SCSI.
n
-d species disk formats.
n
-W species whether the virtual disk is a le on VMFS or NFS datastore, or an object on a Virtual SAN or
Virtual Volumes datastore.
n
--policyFile fileName species VM storage policy for the disk.
Example for Creating a Virtual Disk
This example illustrates creating a two-gigabyte virtual disk le named rh6.2.vmdk on the VMFS le system
named myVMFS. This le represents an empty virtual disk that virtual machines can access.
vmkfstools -c 2048m /vmfs/volumes/myVMFS/rh6.2.vmdk
Initializing a Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to initialize a virtual disk.
-w --writezeros
This option cleans the virtual disk by writing zeros over all its data. Depending on the size of your virtual
disk and the I/O bandwidth to the device hosting the virtual disk, completing this command might take a
long time.
C When you use this command, you lose any existing data on the virtual disk.
Inflating a Thin Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to inate a thin virtual disk.
-j --inflatedisk
This option converts a thin virtual disk to eagerzeroedthick, preserving all existing data. The option
allocates and zeroes out any blocks that are not already allocated.
Removing Zeroed Blocks
Use the vmkfstools command to convert any thin, zeroedthick, or eagerzeroedthick virtual disk to a thin
disk with zeroed blocks removed.
-K --punchzero
This option deallocates all zeroed out blocks and leaves only those blocks that were allocated previously and
contain valid data. The resulting virtual disk is in thin format.
Converting a Zeroedthick Virtual Disk to an Eagerzeroedthick Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to convert any zeroedthick virtual disk to an eagerzeroedthick disk.
-k --eagerzero
While performing the conversion, this option preserves any data on the virtual disk.
Deleting a Virtual Disk
This option deletes a virtual disk le at the specied path on the VMFS volume.
-U --deletevirtualdisk
vSphere Storage
288 VMware, Inc.