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Systems & Data Center · Foundational

Thin Provisioning

Allocating storage capacity on demand as data is written rather than reserving the full size upfront.

Definition

Thin provisioning improves utilization and allows overcommitment, but requires monitoring to avoid running out of physical capacity. It is supported by arrays, LVM, VMDKs and VHDX files.

Example

A 2 TB thin VMDK uses only 300 GB on the datastore until more data is written.

Exam tip

Overcommitted thin storage can fill up unexpectedly; set alerts on physical consumption.

Related terms