vSphere VM Copy Process

Scenario: I want to copy a VM folder to a different location.

The VM is thin provisioned with 50GB used on a 500GB drive.

Option 1: Browse Datastore, right click VM folder, copy, paste into new location.
This operation appears to inflate the vmdk files as they are copied resulting in needing to write 500GB.

Option 2: Browse Datastore, go into VM folder and highlight all files, copy, paste into new location.
This operation appears to just write 50GB and then finishes. A much faster method.

What is the difference between these two processes? Both methods result in a usable VM.

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Comments

J.Tot

no clue but it sounds off.

storage vmotion gives you the option to choose what to do with the data. Which is how I would do it

Essendon

It may be doing a GET and PUT instead of a CP. Interesting question though, maybe open a ticket with VMware and see what they say. But like J.Tot said, SvMotion the VM, I've never done it the 2 ways you've described.

DPG

These are NetApp snapshots (read only) that I am copying so I can't just add to inventory and SVM.