HD space for VM (in Web Client)

[SommyJo]

I am confused about the information shown in the Web Client regarding the space occupied by the VMs.

For example, in ESXi 6.7:

A VM has a HD (Thin provisioning) of 100GB.

n Windows, 21.6GB are used.

36.11GB is reported in the Web Client

In a second VM there are two HD of 80 and 120GB (Thin Provisioning).

In Windows, 29.5 and 1.5GB are used.

213.13GB is reported in the Web Client

What is this data in Web Client?

[dbalcaraz]

Hi,

A VM has a HD (Thin provisioning) of 100GB.

On Windows, 21.6GB are used.

36.11GB is reported in the Web Client

You created a disk of 100 GB so in the VM config, the disk will appear as 100 GB even if only is using 2 GB.

In the Web Client appears the "used storage" for this VM, this includes vmdk files, .swap files, snapshot and so on.

In a second VM there are two HD of 80 and 120GB (Thin Provisioning).

In Windows, 29.5 and 1.5GB are used.

213.13GB is reported in the Web Client

For that one, it's strange that appears as 213 as if you sum both disks it will be 200 GB.

Do you know if there is any snapshot running here?

Another thing you can do is to check the folder inside the VM and see which files are there. This is not truly useful but it can help (VM maybe has LUNs or another storage attached on any other location)

[SommyJo]

In the second case the space shown in the Web Client is the sum of the two disks (a little more because here in fact there is a snapshot).

If so, then why in the first case I do not see 100, but I see 36.11 instead?

this is the strange thing that I reported here

[rkoria2007]

In a second VM there are two HD of 80 and 120GB (Thin Provisioning).

In Windows, 29.5 and 1.5GB are used.

213.13GB is reported in the Web Client

For that one, it's strange that appears as 213 as if you sum both disks it will be 200 GB.

Do you know if there is any snapshot running here?

Another thing you can do is to check the folder inside the VM and see which files are there. This is not truly useful but it can help (VM maybe has LUNs or another storage attached on any other location)

Hi,

If you take snapshot without memory it will take 16 mb only and in this case hdd is not full. other thing if 200 gb hdd is fully used then you can't take snapshot.

Thanks

[Dave_the_Wave]

The web client doesn't appear to refresh so often, I am not sure if this may also be caused by a vCenter box or stuck cache in the browser beinmg used.

I only glance the Summary of storage size as ball park, since it really isn't an issue to the many Terabytes of today.

If you want to know for sure the storage of a thin VM, you can putty into it, go to the dir and du it.

If you don't vMotion, it's also good practice to hole punch it offline once in a while, which I believe is the only way to 'defrag'.

[root@localhost:/vmfs/volumes/<your datastore>/<your vm>] du -h *-flat.vmdk

Especially with Windows VMs, ScheduledDefrag is enabled by default in the Task Scheduler Library, I always disable it.

[SommyJo]

To backup the virtual machines, I have to change the HD from Thin to Tick Provisioning.

Initially I did not take care of the space since it would have increased over time.

With the Thick, I have to establish a realistic space.

Knowing that with 200GB HD I used really only 30GB, but in ESXi are used 213GB,  it is something that I have to evaluate carefully.