2TB thick provisioned VMDK disk shows up as 0.00 bytes in the datastore browser

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The datastore browser reports the size of a 2TB thick provisioned VMDK disk in a virtual machine as 0 bytes
• The size of the VMDK disk is reported as 0.00 Bytes
• The virtual machine functions properly and files are accessible inside the guest operating system
• You are able to migrate the VMDK disk using Storage vMotion or cold migration.
• Running the du command in the virtual machine's directory from an SSH prompt or Local Tech Support Mode reports the total size of the VMDK disk as 0.00 bytes

Cause

This issue occurs when the size of a thick provisioned VMDK disk on a VMFS5 datastore exceeds 2,181,972,430,848 bytes. Due to a 32bit addressing limitation, the datastore browser and the du command cannot read anything beyond this size.

Resolution

This is a known issue that is being investigated by VMware.

This is a reporting issue only. It does not affect the functionality and can safely be ignored.

To work around this issue, use one of these options:

• Using clone or Storage vMotion, convert the disk to a thin provisioned disk.
• Create a new VMDK disk that is smaller and copy the files to it from within the guest operating system. The original disk can then be deleted.

Additional Information

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