vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware

vSphere Storage
This option creates a virtual disk at the specified path on a datastore. Specify the size of the virtual disk. When
you enter the value for size, you can indicate the unit type by adding a suffix of k (kilobytes), m (megabytes),
or g (gigabytes). The unit type is not case sensitive. vmkfstools interprets either k or K to mean kilobytes. If you
don’t specify a unit type, vmkfstools defaults to bytes.
You can specify the following suboptions with the -c option.
n -a specifies the controller that a virtual machine uses to communicate with the virtual disks. You can
choose between BusLogic, LSI Logic, IDE, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual SCSI.
n -d specifies disk formats.
Example for Creating a Virtual Disk
This example illustrates creating a two-gigabyte virtual disk file named rh6.2.vmdk on the VMFS file system
named myVMFS. This file represents an empty virtual disk that virtual machines can access.
vmkfstools -c 2048m /vmfs/volumes/myVMFS/rh6.2.vmdk
Initializing a Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to initialize a virtual disk.
-w --writezeros
This option cleans the virtual disk by writing zeros over all its data. Depending on the size of your virtual disk
and the I/O bandwidth to the device hosting the virtual disk, completing this command might take a long time.
CAUTION When you use this command, you lose any existing data on the virtual disk.
Inflating a Thin Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to inflate a thin virtual disk.
-j --inflatedisk
This option converts a thin virtual disk to eagerzeroedthick, preserving all existing data. The option allocates
and zeroes out any blocks that are not already allocated.
Removing Zeroed Blocks
Use the vmkfstools command to convert any thin, zeroedthick, or eagerzeroedthick virtual disk to a thin disk
with zeroed blocks removed.
-K --punchzero
This option deallocates all zeroed out blocks and leaves only those blocks that were allocated previously and
contain valid data. The resulting virtual disk is in thin format.
Converting a Zeroedthick Virtual Disk to an Eagerzeroedthick Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to convert any zeroedthick virtual disk to an eagerzeroedthick disk.
-k --eagerzero
While performing the conversion, this option preserves any data on the virtual disk.
Deleting a Virtual Disk
This option deletes a virtual disk file at the specified path on the VMFS volume.
-U --deletevirtualdisk
260 VMware, Inc.