Datastore 2 'insufficient space'

[TECH198]

in vSphere, i'm trying to use the free space from another datastore..

So I have 2 data stores currently: 20 Gig and 40 Gig capacities

Datastore1 has only 2Gig free and i have plenty of free space on datastore 2

When i go under 'Edit settings' on first VM, an Add 2nd hard drive, the 'location' i specify  'datastore2' and disk size i change to 38Gig..

This works as first VM powers on and can see 2nd hard drive with the space available..

However, due to swap file issues, VM 2 is now broke, and will not power on.. So i'm trying to find out a:) the 'sweet spot' of how much to leave?? I've tries under VM options of 2nd VM to place swap file elsewhere, but and/or workaround by adjusting resources to full memory as somehow it worked for some people with "no swap space" but in this case,  neither of these worked.

Obviously it would depend on the disk size of the 2nd VM in all cases: for instance  (leave 8Gig free for... or leave 10 gig free etc...) is there a rule of thumb?

If i remove 2nd hard drive from 1st VM, 2nd one powers back up as normal...  Basically, i'm trying to figure out  what point it breaks:

2nd vm fails

It can be done, because after powering on 1st VM with two hard drives Windows detects second one with freespace coming from datastore 2, but unfortunately breaks 2nd vm from powering on.

[Scott Vessey]

You need to have a good look at what files are in the datastore to understand the allocated space, actual used space, and free space in more detail.

You also need to look at memory reservations and swap file locations, and whether your virtual disk types are thick or thin.

Your setup all seems a bit messy and very tight on space.

[TECH198]

After i add 2nd, it seems free space on datastore2 is filled up with .vmdk from Virtual Machine 1

after adding 2nd HD to 1st vm, if i then check free space from configuration, datastre2 is now showing only 156.00MB, which could explain.

So, if i am using to use free space from datastore 2 for VM1, must i then free up the required space?

in this case: datastore would need an additional 14,gig to accommodate shared.?

Apart from this, that is all i see.

[nachogonzalez]

hey sir, hope you are doing fine:

From what i can see you are creating your disks with thin provissioning eager zero
what it means is: if for example you need to provision a 100 GB disk, but you will use only 3 GB it will  provision the 100Gb and then write the 3GB.

If you want to save space I highly recommend using thin provisioning.

Here is the difference:

Storage Thick and Thin Provisioning

In addition to that, what you can do to reduce you disk usage is to storage vmotion your vms by selecting thin provisioning, that way you will change the disk provisioning type.

(VMware Knowledge Base )

Hope this works

[b.w]

thin provisioning eager zeroed ? whats that ?

in the pictures the vmks are thick lazy zeroed

[nachogonzalez]

sorry, messed up

[TECH198]

I used thin proving on both disks, and it both powered on fine.