NVP vProxy: Thin Provisioned VMs Are Being Restored With Fully Allocated Disks

• NetWorker VMware Protection (NVP) is configured with the vProxy appliance.
• The VMware vCenter server is vCenter Server 7.0.0d (or older)
• You have performed an NVP vProxy VM Image restore of a VM that was originally deployed with thin provisioned disks. The original VM is not using the allocated disk space; however, the restored VM is using the total amount designated to the disks. For example, the original VM was deployed with a 50 GB thin provisioned hard drive but was only using 20 GB of disk space. The restored VM's .vmdk file size shows 50 GB used instead of 20 GB.

This issue is occurring outside of NetWorker and was identified at the vCenter level.

See: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/56608  

This issue was not observed on vCenter Versions 7.0 U1 and later. Ensure that the vCenter server is updated to the latest supported version: VMware vCenter Server Versions and Build Numbers 

Workaround:

It has been observed that after the restored VM has been power cycled a few times the disk size reverts to the expected size. 

Reminder: vSphere 7 to reach End of Service on Oct 2, 2025