best practices: thick versus thin?

My google-fu must be incredibly weak, because I haven't found a good writeup on provisioning choice in terms of use case. For example;
Server 2008 domain controllers that primarily just domain-control - thick or thin?
thin is better if you're going to Storage vMotion it frequently, but seems to me that DCs that aren't doing a lot of other roles can just sit there and handle authentication/authorization traffic, so why shuffle them around a lot. So, provision it as One Big Disk, make it thick at the Windows minimum, and leave it alone?
Server 2008 file server - thin seems better, capacity consumption will grow slowly over time.
Linux server running BIND - I'm guessing thick, simply because it can be made quite small and appliance-like.
What are your views on thick versus thin?
Server 2008 domain controllers that primarily just domain-control - thick or thin?
thin is better if you're going to Storage vMotion it frequently, but seems to me that DCs that aren't doing a lot of other roles can just sit there and handle authentication/authorization traffic, so why shuffle them around a lot. So, provision it as One Big Disk, make it thick at the Windows minimum, and leave it alone?
Server 2008 file server - thin seems better, capacity consumption will grow slowly over time.
Linux server running BIND - I'm guessing thick, simply because it can be made quite small and appliance-like.
What are your views on thick versus thin?
Comments
"Simplify, then add lightness" -Colin Chapman
Our SANs are due for replacement and for that reason we keep ours thick. Each Datastore is for each VM. (Small Environment).
I think you've given me my next blog post.
Thanks.
[edit] Or what Dave said
Blog: https://readysetvirtual.wordpress.com
Why would you want to SvMotion any VM often? It's something you dont do everyday or even every other day. If your having to do it often, then you have problems.
File servers - consumption will grow based on use. As an example, my previous employer had it's file services growing by about 100GB everyday.
Here's a link to help look at this thing in a few different ways:
Thin Provisioning – What’s the scoop? | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs
Blog >> http://virtual10.com
DC is always THICK. Usually requires no more than 60GB of disk, we can increase the disk if there is a need in the future.
SQL OS, DB thick, extra junk goes to thin.
All other VMs thin.
offtopic
Btw, I really, really like Deduplication on Win2K12 (Not R2), did some tests with our ghost and wim images, and space savings are phenomenal.
WIll most definitely upgrade our Win 2003R2 file servers to Win2k12R2 as soon as its out.
It is a VMware recommended best practice. I don't buy it.
1. Performance difference between thin & thick is minimal in modern storage.
2. Production environment should never use swap unless you have massive resource failure i.e. blade chassis fails.
3. Spliting out swap makes DR more complex.
"Simplify, then add lightness" -Colin Chapman
VMware recommends swap file be thick provisioned due to concern that thin provisioned swap file may not inflate fast enough.
If you think about what swap file does, the amount of useless data (i.e. swap file) you initially replicate using SRM is extremely small and the swap file shouldn't be part of subsequent replication.
"Simplify, then add lightness" -Colin Chapman
Recent: 11/2019 - RHCSA (RHEL 7); 2/2019 - Updated VCP to 6.5 (just a few days before VMware discontinued the re-cert policy...)
Working on: RHCE/Ansible
Future: Probably continued Red Hat Immersion, Possibly VCAP Design, or maybe a completely different path. Depends on job demands...
At a minimum follow the guidelines in the following order:
1. Storage array guidance (some arrays can interact with a host to provide benefits to each type of provisioning). Especially if you have the stronger arrays from NetApp or EMC.
1. OS Vendor Guidance (I.e. MSFT virtualization)
2. Application Vendor Guidance (i.e. virtualizing domain controllers. exchange servers).
Especially in 2013 there is alot of info out there and vendors are offering specific information for virtualization because their customers demand it.