Thick vs Thin Disk Backup Performance

[shepcon]

I'm building a new VMware 6.7 environment running on all SSD flash storage with a RAID6 setup on a single Dell R740 host. My question is regarding the best backup performance when picking between thick on thin disk provisioning on the VMs. I'll have a few Windows 10 Pro VMs and a few Windows Server 2016 VMs for a DC and the Veaam B&R server will also be a VM. Because it's all new, I can select any disk provisioning as I create the VMs.

Of the different types of thick and thin disks, which have the best backup performance with Veeam 9.5?

Thanks for any input.
Ken

[TrevorBell]

Hi Ken,

I have used both in the past and not found any difference in backup performance, after all VBR is taking a snapshot of the VM and backing it up.

I would think the question is more if you use thin you are saving precious SSD storage space, that said if you provison "thick" VM then atleast you know the full size of the VM and they will not grow too much ( my prefered choice is thick as you know your storage wont grow too much being fully provisioned)

Thanks

Trev

[shepcon]

Thanks, Trev.

[foggy]

While may be not relevant to your environment, but still, there are some limitations in terms of data transport mode for thin disks. Basically, direct SAN is only supported for writing to thick-provisioned disks.

[shepcon]

Thanks. No SAN here. Single host running local SSD storage.

Ken