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We have two data stores each having vms. The second data store is now giving the insufficient disk erro. I have to put off some of the VMs in order to allow the critical vms for domain and email running. When I log onto the VMs, there is still available space however, on the storage configuration part, there much less space. The spaces are being used and we have to free the disk on the Vms although on the VMs there is space and then scan the data store to free space.

Please can someone tell me what should be done.

Kinjohn Lui
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    Are your VMs thin provisioned or thick provisioned ? If you're running out of space and the VMs are thin provisioned then you're going to have issues...you'll have to migrate some of the vms to the first datastore. – Lawrence Aug 29 '13 at 04:04
  • Move some VM's from the almost full datastore to the not almost full datastore. You might be able to extend the datastore but without knowing anything about your server hardware there's no way to know if that's possible. – joeqwerty Aug 29 '13 at 04:15
  • Thanks Lawrence and Joewerty, The VMs are thin provisioned. I am running my ESXi on Hp Proliant ML380 G7. The first data store is 130GB has 1VM and the second data store which has about 7 VM has 1TB. Currently the first data store has 110GB free space and the second data store has 5GB Free space. The VMs OS ranges from XP, 7, 2003 and 2012. – Kinjohn Lui Aug 29 '13 at 04:29
  • I am quit new here so can you tell me how I can migrate the VMs between the data store. I am already in the process of converting VM between the data store..much appreciated – Kinjohn Lui Aug 29 '13 at 04:36
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    There are a number of ways to do it depending on what version/edition of vSphere you're running and what licensed features you have (storage vMotion, etc.). Assuming vSphere 5.x and no license you can simply shut down the VM, remove the VM from your inventory, move it from one datastore to the other using the datastore browser and then re-add the VM to your inventory. – joeqwerty Aug 29 '13 at 04:56
  • I'm not a fan of using the VMware Converter to convert a VM for the purpose of moving it from one datastore to another. You can use this method (and in some cases it may be the only option, such as when moving vCenter server from one vSphere host to another) but it just seems like the wrong tool for the job to me. – joeqwerty Aug 29 '13 at 05:00
  • Thanks Joeqwerty, I managed to move couple of VMs and free space for data store 2.... – Kinjohn Lui Aug 29 '13 at 05:52
  • In doing so I managed to free 30GB yesterday on data store 2, and this morning I realized that this free space has been consumed fully. VMs cannot boot up. I had to shut down non crital VMs to have the critial one running. I now have 3GB free on data store 2. Free space data store 1 has not changed – Kinjohn Lui Aug 29 '13 at 23:39

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Double-check that your VM's are thin-provisioned. If not you can convert them, but you'll need to migrate them to the other datastore in order to complete the conversion.

If they are thin-provisioned, then its worth going through the VM's to look for any space you can reclaim. old installers, log files etc. Another tactic can be to reduce the page file size of any Windows VMs (you need to restart the VM to apply).

Make sure none of your VM's have snapshots running. If so you'll need to delete/merge them. However be aware that this can require more disk space to complete if the VM is powered on when snapshot is deleted.

Check the VMTools of your VM's, depending on their config you may be able to shrink the VM's disk usage (though usually not by much).

Lastly, check your datastores for wasted space, old VM's that haven't been deleted properly, and ISO's are common culprits.

Simon
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