❌ Common Pitfall: Defaulting to thin provisioning just to save space? Think again!
⚠️ Key Risks:
1. Performance Penalty
Thin disks: Slow initial writes (on-the-fly allocation + zeroing). Fragmentation worsens over time. I/O-heavy workloads (DBs, transactions) suffer!
Thick disks (preallocated): Pre-zeroed and contiguous. Faster, stable I/O — no allocation lag!
2. Storage Illusion
Thin disks: Your VM thinks it has free space, but the host’s storage pool might be full. Writes fail silently! 💥
You MUST monitor host storage utilization! VM-level metrics lie.
💡 Pro Tips:
Need performance? → Thick provisioning (especially for I/O-sensitive apps).
Storage abundant? → Thick disks (less admin stress + better speed).
Use thin ONLY if:
You aggressively monitor host storage.
Performance fluctuations are acceptable.
📌 Bottom line: Don’t just chase storage savings. Balance performance + reliability!
