Provisioned Size not showing if I restore a VMDK file

[pparks1]

I noticed evaluating the product (5.0.1)that I have 2 methods to restore a VM

1). Either restore the entire VM with reregistration. (Works, but with new UUID, it's seen as a different machine and my backup jobs won't run until I modify with new VM

2). Restore the indivdual VMDK files themselves.

Well, when I do #2, I notice in datastore browser, that I no longer see Provisioned Size and Size....instead I just see Size. And if I right click on the top and try to add the Provisioned Size column, it's not even an option.

When I do #1 and restore that way, it properly shows both Size and Provisioned Size.

And for the record I'm using ESXi 4.1.0, 260247 in eval mode.

[Gostev]

Restore of individual disks does not support thin provisioning today, so disks are always restored as thick. But we will support that in the next release. Thanks.

[pparks1]

Gostev,

Thank you very much for the response. I though the file WAS staying thin because when I would check the Settings on the VM, it showed as thin. But if I removed the HD from the VM and simply added it back, it recognized it as a thick file.

I look forward to a new release where this restores as thin. Restoring the entire VM keeps it thin, but then you get a new UUID, so you have to modify your backup job and add in VM again so it recognizes it, else the backups will fail with an "object servername not found".

[Gostev]

Yep, I understand the need here. The issue with thin disks is that cannot exist by itself (without being attached to a VM) and outside VMFS, while the individual VM files restore wizard was originally designed to restore files to regular storage (not back to the datastore). Which is why we do not have this feature today. Adding this feature actually triggered quite significant changes to UI of this wizard, because you now have to specify VM to restore those disks to.