vSphere 5: How to reclaim unused space in datastore

[XPOSE]

Hi All,

Sorry if this has been posted before - however, id like to give specifics of my issue:

I have an issue with a clients production server.

2 datastores: SYSTEM (2 x 300GB RAID1) - DATA (6 x 1TB RAID5)

The issue is with the SYSTEM datastore.

The SBS VM C:\ VHD is hosted on the SYSTEM datastore.

I recently moved the exchange database from C:\ to a new drive on the DATA datastore. The free space now shows on the C:\ drive - however within ESXi it still shows as in use.

Can someone please advise me the correct way to reclaim the space?

As it stands - ive moved the C:\ VHD to the DATA datstore, until this is resolved.

Thanks in advance.

Nigel.

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Kindly refer to the below link

http://www.thelowercasew.com/reclaiming-disk-space-with-storage-vmotion-and-thin-provisioning

[iw123]

Do you have storage vmotion available? You can move the datastore and shrink the disks by specifying thin provisioning as the target disk type. You can use VMtools to shrink the disk first to get the best results.

see this yellow bricks for a bit more info - http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/07/31/storage-vmotion-and-moving-to-a-thin-provisioned-disk/. and this one has a little more about it http://logicalshift.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/reclaiming-vmdk-space.html

thanks

[krishna_v78]

Hi,

What is the flat-vmdk file size in SYSTEM Datastore? i.e for C drive. I believe, even though you move exchange datastore to another drive, there won't be any change in ESXi datastore free space. In case, if you want more free disk space, then you can go for thin provisioning as suggested by others.

Regards,

Krishna.

[aravinds3107]

If you are running ESXi 5.0 with Update1 ypu can reclaim the deadspace using VMKFSTOOLS

Refer this blog and KB which talks about reclaiming dead space

William LAM has autmoated this procees take a look here

[rickardnobel]

Aravind Sivaraman wrote:

If you are running ESXi 5.0 with Update1 ypu can reclaim the deadspace using VMKFSTOOLS

Refer this blog and KB which talks about reclaiming dead space.

I think that is just for "thin LUNs", i.e. the possibility for the ESXi host to inform the SAN that a vmdk has been moved or deleted.

[XPOSE]

Hi all, thanks for all your input

I ended up doing a V2V using converter on the C:\ drive - All good now :smileyhappy:

[Ranjna Aggarwal]

If you want to reclaim the unused space then you can perform the storage vmotion, cloning of the vm