Convert a VMDK to Thin without vMotion
Storage vMotion is wonderful but vMotion isn’t available without vCenter. bah!
This was a handy guide:
- Enable SSH to the host.
- Browse to the VM:
cd /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<vm>
- Create a thin version of the .vmdk:
vmkfstools -i d <vhdd>.vmdk -d thin <vhdd>-thin.vmdk
- Remove the thick .vmdk
- Attach the thin .vmdk
- Delete the old .vmdk and *-flat.vmdk