Virtualize.dk

I had to add another harddrive to a test VM and wondered how to take advantage of thin provisioning in linux. On Windows VM’s you have to do a “Quick Format” to use thin provisioning. Here is what you do on a linux (ubuntu) VM.

1. Shutdown the VM (if you dont have Hotadd-feature licensed)
2. Add a new harddrive with thin provisioning
3. Start the VM
4. Log in
5. Check the dmesg to find the devicename of the new harddrive ( in my case /dev/sdb )
6. sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb (use another mkfs-command to use the filesystem of your choise)
7. /dev/sdb is entire device, not just one partition!
   Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
8. Wait for it to finish
9. Mount the harddrive (sudo mount /dev/sdb /home/newharddrive)