Running ESXi 6.5 Update 2. (Dell version).
I was trying to convert the seven images from Thick provisions to thin provisions (my mistake not realizing what thick vs thin was at the time). After digging around online I found a suggestion that cloning the VMDK file will allow you to create the clone as a thin provision drive.
Below are the commands I used to do so just for reference.
-Cloning the original file. This created a cloned vmdk file along with a new *flat-vmdk file.
"vmkfstools -i VMname.vmdk -d thin thin-VMname.vmdk"
-Renamed the original VMDK files (the main and flat file) with a .old at the end.
"mv OldName.vmdk NewName.vmdk"
-Renamed the cloned vmdk files to match the original files.
"mv Cloned.vmdk Original.vmdk"
Unregister the image then Re Register it back in.
This worked perfectly fine for my first image. But when trying this with the second the esxi server can't find the vmdk file. Taking a look at the datastore I can see it's present but when trying to add a new drive and looking at the same path it's not shown.
Renaming everything back to the way it was resolves the issue.
Did something go wrong with the clone process or is something else going on?
The drives are setup to be single file and not multiple. I don't have any snapshots.