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kriiis

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Vmware virtual disk and data store disk size

Hi,

I have Vmware ver 4.1 with data store partionned into 2 with 2 terra bytes in each part.
The issues i am running out of space in 1st datastore so i want to move some big files to 2nd data store.

1st data store contains the virtual disk of file server datas ( excel, power point, word, pdf.. ). No file server logical partion. File server logical partition is located in different data store.

my question is :
=> If i move manually vmdk file ( which is actually extended disk (F:) in file server ) from datastore1 to datastore2, will me there any impacts ? i m not using vmotion.
=> Or, if i delete the extended disk of 250GB ( F:) of windows filerserver VM . Can i recover 250 gb in datastore1 ? i am not sure whether this can be done.
so VMDK file corresponds to virtual extended disk will get automatically deleted as well ? or we should deleted it manually by browsing to datastore location ? this will any have any impact such as data lost, vm's fail over ?

My point is to recover the disk space on datastore.

( PS. extended disk is used as share with folders and files set with permissions. before deleting virutal disk, i will move the datas to another virtual disk )
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David Johnson, CD
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=> If i move manually vmdk file ( which is actually extended disk (F:) in file server ) from datastore1 to datastore2, will me there any impacts ? i m not using vmotion.

The impact will be, that during the move of the VMDK, the VM will be offline, and not available. But once completed there will be no impact to the OS. You will need to Remove the Disk from the VM (but do not delete from disk!).

you can use my EE Article as a guide, to copy/moving the vmdk

HOW TO: Clone or Copy a virtual machine in VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESX/ESXi 4.x or ESXi 5.0

Or, if i delete the extended disk of 250GB ( F:) of windows filerserver VM . Can i recover 250 gb in datastore1 ? i am not sure whether this can be done.
so VMDK file corresponds to virtual extended disk will get automatically deleted as well ? or we should deleted it manually by browsing to datastore location ? this will any have any impact such as data lost, vm's fail over ?

If a VMDK is removed from the datastore, you will get back 250GB of storage space. If the VMDK is removed and deleted from the datastore, the disk will disappear from the OS.

Provided that no data is being used on the disk you delete, there will be no impact.

Because completing any changes, please make sure you havea full backup, because accidents do happen.
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kriiis

ASKER

Hi guys thanks for your replies.

@Andrew Hancock : to clarify : probally i havent mentioned clearly in 2nd solution : If i delete 250 GB of virtual disk ( F: ) under windows, instead of deleting VMDK. Can i recover this 250 GB on datastore1 ? does VM has intelligence to recover this space ?
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ASKER

Hi,

I havenet used shrink option or vmdk file move. I moved the datas on file server from disk1 to disk2 and deleted 250 gb from VM. Right click on VM client, delete the disk.
It recovered the space on datastore without using shrink.
Yes, that's one long winded "manual" method of doing it!
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ASKER

the issue has been resolved in easiest way. However the abouve comments are useful to gather knowledge.