vMotioning from thin to thick eager not functioning on Nutanix datastore.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When changing or migrating a vmdk's provisioning on a Nutanix based datastore you may encounter what appears like faulty or non functional behaviour.

For example:

Performing a storage vmotion of a Virtual Machine and changing its disk provisioning type from thin to thick lazy zeroed results in the vm showing/displaying with the disks having a provisioning type of thick eager zeroed.

Environment

vSphere 8x

Cause

This is due to how the Nutanix Datastore handles the vmdks.

Nutanix uses a thick Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) to reserve the storage space using the vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) reserve space API.

Resolution

For more information please see the following articles and contact Nutanix if further clarity is needed.

• https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008eKFCAY
• https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=vSphere-Admin6-AOS-v7_0:vsp-cluster-provisioningtypes-vdisk-vsphere-c.html