When migrating to a vSAN environment, a validation error occurs when configuring the migration of a virtual machine with a thick-provisioned virtual disk.

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

When the Virtual Disk Format is set to "Same format as source" in the HCX migration settings, the following error is detected during validation:

Thick provisioned disks on the vSAN datastore should be created via storage policy. Please choose 'Thin Provision' under Virtual Disk Format.

Environment

VMware HCX
VMware vSAN

Cause

This issue occurs because vSAN datastores use thin provisioning by default. Consequently, HCX cannot typically perform a migration using the Same format as source setting for thick-provisioned disks without a corresponding storage policy on the destination cluster.

Resolution

To migrate while maintaining the thick-provisioned format on a vSAN datastore, follow these steps:

1. Create a storage policy on the destination vCenter Server with the "Storage Type" set to "VSAN" and "Object space reservation" set to "Thick provisioning".
2. In the HCX migration wizard, navigate to the "Select Destination Storage" screen.
3. In the "Select Storage Profile" field, specify the storage policy you created in Step 1.

By setting the destination storage policy to a thick-provisioning storage profile, the migration to the vSAN datastore can proceed successfully.