6.5.1

What to do next
If your virtual disk is in the thin format, you can inflate it to its full size.
Inflate Thin Virtual Disks
If you created a virtual disk in the thin format, you can convert the thin disk to a virtual disk in thick
provision format.
You use the datastore browser to inflate the virtual disk.
Prerequisites
n
Make sure that the datastore where the virtual machine resides has enough space.
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Make sure that the virtual disk is thin.
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Remove snapshots.
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Power off your virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Navigate to the folder of the virtual disk you want to inflate.
a In the vSphere Web Client, browse to the virtual machine.
b Click the Datastores tab.
The datastore that stores the virtual machine files is listed.
c
Select the datastore and click the Browse Files icon ( ).
The datastore browser displays contents of the datastore.
2 Expand the virtual machine folder and browse to the virtual disk file that you want to convert.
The file has the .vmdk extension and is marked with the virtual disk (
) icon.
3 Right-click the virtual disk file and select Inflate.
Note The option might not be available if the virtual disk is thick or when the virtual machine is
running.
The inflated virtual disk occupies the entire datastore space originally provisioned to it.
Handling Datastore Over-Subscription
Because the provisioned space for thin disks can be greater than the committed space, a datastore over-
subscription can occur, which results in the total provisioned space for the virtual machine disks on the
datastore being greater than the actual capacity.
Over-subscription can be possible because usually not all virtual machines with thin disks need the entire
provisioned datastore space simultaneously. However, if you want to avoid over-subscribing the
datastore, you can set up an alarm that notifies you when the provisioned space reaches a certain
threshold.
vSphere Storage
VMware, Inc. 325