Thin Disks

[scotty_p]

I have a Linux server that has an 85GB disk, however only 30GB is in use. I backed it up with VCB, then imported it back in as thin. It is still showing that it's using 85GB. Shouldn't this have compacted to the size of what is in use?

Thanks,

Scott

[VMmatty]

I've never tried the VCB import method but you should be able to change to a thin disk by simply doing a Storage VMotion to another datastore. Is that an option for you?

[scotty_p]

It did change to thin, but when I look at the disk usage, it still shows the full 85GB in use rather than only the used space.

[VMmatty]

Are you looking at Provisioned Storage or Used Storage?

[RParker]

You probably have to defrag or run sdelete to truly clean out the space. White space is marked as 00's rather than FF, both mean it can be reused, but FF doesn't pre-allocate the space like 00 does, so thus it appears in the OS space in use, but it can be reclaimed.

sdelete will do it.

[scotty_p]

Provisioned space is 90GB

Used space is 83GB.

But there's really on 30GB used.

What is the best way to reclaim the space? This is a linux server. I don't believe sdelete will work on linux.

Thanks,

Scott

[VMmatty]

I believe the VMware Tools Shrink option can be used and it works similarly to sdelete. I've never used it with Linux before but I believe it works the same way.

This KB describes how to disable the shrink function but also describes what it does and how it works so it should give you some more info on it.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010941

[Borja_Mari]

Hi,

maybe this is what are you looking for

:smileywink:

Regards/Saludos,
Pablo

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cualquier respuesta útil o correcta. ¡¡Muchas gracias!!

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[scotty_p]

This is what I'm trying to do, but my machine is Linux. Thanks anyway.

[Borja_Mari]

Hi,

yep i was wrong.

Then take a look to this (at the end of the blog's entry)

:smileywink:

Regards/Saludos,
Pablo

Please consider awarding

any helpful or corrrect answer. Thanks!! -

Por favor considera premiar

cualquier respuesta útil o correcta. ¡¡Muchas gracias!!

Virtually noob blog

[RParker]

What is the best way to reclaim the space? This is a linux server. I don't believe sdelete will work on linux.

There is a simple way to do this on a Linux partition. Simply use the dd tool. i.e.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/fillerup.zero

then remove the /fillerup.zero file and it's done.