Home » VMware » VCP550D » Which action should the vSphere administrator take to resolve the Out of Space problem without requesting additional space on the storage array?
A Windows Server 2008 virtual machine with the following configuration receives an Out of Space condition indicator:
The virtual machine uses thin provisioned virtual disks.
The VMFS5 datastore on which the virtual machine’s files reside is on a thin provisioned LUN.
30% of the VMFS datastore content is no longer needed.
The storage array supports VASA and VAAI.
Which action should the vSphere administrator take to resolve the Out of Space problem without requesting additional space on the storage array?
A. Delete unneeded files on the VMFS datastore and then use vmkfstools to reclaim deleted blocks.
B. Delete unneeded files on the VMFS datastore, right-click the datastore in vSphere Web Client, and then select the Reclaim Deleted Blocks option.
C. Delete some files from the guest OS and defrag its file system.
D. Delete some files from the guest OS and use vmkfstools to reclaim the deleted blocks.
Correct Answer: A
Explanation/Reference:
Explanation:
We need to enable the thin virtual disk in the VM to expand in the datastore without increasing the size of the datastore.
The first thing we need to do is free up space in the datastore. The question states that 30% of the VMFS datastore content is no longer needed so we can easily delete some content to free up space. After deleting content, the freed up space is not automatically made available to use. This is because the UNMAP operation is disabled by default in later versions of ESX. Therefore, we need to manually free up the space. We can do this using the vmkfstools command (this command is deprecated in ESXi 5.5 and replaced with the esxcli command but the vmkfstools command still works in 5.5).
Incorrect Answers:
B: On thin provisioned disks we need to use vmkfstools or esxcli to reclaim deleted blocks. Therefore, this answer is incorrect.
C: The Out of Space condition indicator indicates that the VM’s thin provisioned disks are unable to expand due to a lack of available disk space in the datastore (not the operating system). The guest operating system does not know that there is a disk space issue. For example, the virtual disk could be configured as 100GB in size. There could be 80GB of available disk space according to the operating system. However, to use the available 80GB of disk space, the thin provisioned virtual disk needs to expand in the datastore. Therefore, deleting files in the guest operating system will not resolve the issue so this answer is incorrect.
D: The Out of Space condition indicator indicates that the VM’s thin provisioned disks are unable to expand due to a lack of available disk space in the datastore (not the operating system). The guest operating system does not know that there is a disk space issue. For example, the virtual disk could be configured as 100GB in size. There could be 80GB of available disk space according to the operating system. However, to use the available 80GB of disk space, the thin provisioned virtual disk needs to expand in the datastore. Therefore, deleting files in the guest operating system will not resolve the issue so this answer is incorrect.
References:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2014849