Provisioned and Used Space of VMs in the DataStore

Capacity is the Total Size.
Provisioned Space is the total size allocated to the VM.
Used Space is the space USED by the VM
Free Space is the space not used up by VMs yet.

Ok let 's take the example of the second VM on the screenshot above:

Provisoned space:  729.08GB of 1.22 TB   Used Space: 518.51GB of  963.84 GB

If I understand your statement the allocated disk space for the VM is 729.08GB  and it has used 518.51 GB
what about the 1.22 TB and 963.84 GB , what are those numbers represent ?

Thanks

it is dynamically expanding disk it will use up to963.84 TB, it has expanded to 729.08GB but items have been deleted so it is now using 518.51GB leaving the difference of 1.22-0.963.84 available before it is over provisioned and can run out of space.

when the Vmware Administrator set up the VM, the Disk size allowed to the VM was it 963.84 GB and it has used 518.51GB ?
I am also  not clear on when you said it has expanded to 729.08GB then shrinked to 518.51GB

@Jskfan : There are 3 types of disk provisioning.

*Lazy zeroed thick Provisioning.
*Eager zeroed thick provisioning
*Thin provisioning.


In your case, you are using thin provisioning I guess. Below is the background process, which occurs when you provision a disk with thin provisioning.

Imagine you assigned 50 GB to a disk with thin provisioning, what ESXi does is, it provides the disk in the thin format.  In this thin format, ESXi provides only the required amount of storage for its initial operations. For example, it may hand out only 25GB of size out of 50GB. As the disk requires more space it can grow up to 50GB.

Please let me know if this helps.

Imagine you assigned 50 GB to a disk with thin provisioning

Ok.. so when it 50GB are filled up, there is no more automatic expansion. correct..

My question though, was about the screenshot I pasted above...
What is the meaning, under Provisioned space :729.08 GB of 1.22 TB  and under Used Space: 518.51 GB of 963.84 GB

can you explain those number to what they are related to ?

Thanks

Among the 2 virtual machines which you specified in the screenshot, 1st looks like displaying the proper information according to thin provisioning.

But as you specified, 2nd virtual machine disk details are quite weird. Could you please click on the particular Virtual machine and then go to the summary tab and see the disk details.

Just check if the same information is being displayed there.

Ok..
I am not at work now..but can you explain the first VM info ?
Thanks

I have picked a bunch of VMs ..  
If any Expert can explain those numbers meaning that will be helpful

Provisioned is combination of your total size + overhead + swap file etc however the used space is the used space on that particular datastore for that VM. Some VMs has less used space of the total is because that the vmdk's might be spread across the other datastores as well which would not be counted.

Hope this clarifies

Provision space:  850.89 GB of 903.00 GB
so 850.89 GB is  total size assigned to disk  + overhead + swap file etc... , means useless to know what that number means ?

903.00GB  is that the Datastore size where the machine resides on ?

Used space: 360.17 GB of  362.42 GB

does that mean the Datastore is 362.42GB and the VM is using 360.17Gb of it ?

Today, when I went to check the Provisioned space and Used Space, it shows different display..I guess this one makes more sense:

I will have to revisit this again
Thank you Guys