You can change the existing Virtual Hard disks (VMware based) from Thick to thin and vice-versa. This can be achieved by either using VMotion/SVMotion or command line tool called " vmkfstools". Using VMotion/SVMotion is required a valid license. Select “Migrate” and choose “Change Datastore” and select the Disk format. If you don’t have a VMotion/SVMotion license, use the following command to achieve the same. From Thick to Thin: vmkfstools –i "Thickdisk.vmdk" -d thin "Thindisk.vmdk" It will start to clone to virtual hard disk in Thin Provision method. After completed, you can attach this disk with VM and power it on. If all looks good, you can delete the original thick disk from the data store. Use the following command to see real-time usage of thin disk: du –h "Thindisk.vmdk" You can notice the big difference of disk usage between of Thin and Thick format disks. From Thin to Thick: vmkfstools –i "Thindisk.vmdk" -d zeroedthick "T...
Disclaimer: The information/articles posted on this blog based on my own experience and views only.