bballlal wrote:
In that article I'm seeing where it says, "For ESXi 5.0, this error occurs when any individual flat .vmdk file exceeds 2,181,972,430,848 bytes. Try to keep the size of the disk below 2,181,972,430,848 bytes for normal snapshot operations." Since my provisioned VMDK size is 2,199,013,376,000 bytes, it looks like that could be my problem. Since it's thin provisioned and my actual VMDK size is 1,386,994,688,000 bytes...does anyone think reducing the provisioned size will fix my snapshot problem?
According to the kb, this seems to be your problem. I will suggest to reduce the provisioned size of the virtual disk.
bballlal wrote:
I've read in another thread somewhere someone saying a storage vmotion to thick eager zeroed and then another storage vmotion to thin again would work? Or is it best to do with VMware converter? It's a large SQL database with an OS and a Data drive so it's going to be a PITA. The administrator who set this up obviously didn't know about this size limitation.
SvMotion will not help you in reducing the provisioned space of the virtual disk. VMware Converter is the safe option since it will clone the VM without impacting/modifying the source VM. Although a downtime will be required.
For reference: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/networking/how-to-shrink-a-vmdk-using-vmware-converter/5362
...hth!