Support for space reclamation in VMDK files in NFS datastores

You can use the Space Reclaimer feature to reclaim space left by recently freed blocks in VMDK files located in NFS datastores when you use SnapDrive for Windows with SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure in an ESX environment.

You can run Space Reclaimer on VMDK files using SnapDrive MMC and sdcli.exe.

SnapDrive provides support for VMDK file space reclamation in NFS datastores in the following cases:

VMDK files with simple extent type FLAT is supported.
Space reclamation is not supported on sparse extents and VMFS datastores.
SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure must be present to discover VMDK files.
If SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure is not available, SnapDrive is unable to discover VMDKs and, therefore, cannot reclaim space on VMDK files.
SnapDrive is configured with either ESX server or vCenter credentials.
Data ONTAP 7.3.4 or later is installed on your storage system.