Storage DRS only supports linked clones with vCloud Director 5.1

Linked clone configurations that span across datastores are not supported in vCloud Director 5.1.

Storage DRS will not recommend placement of a linked clone that would span datastores from the base disk.

Storage DRS will migrate a clone to a datastore containing a shadow virtual machine and will relink the clone to the existing shadow virtual machine.

Linked clones can be migrated between VMFS3 and VMFS5, and are supported in SDRS. The format conversions are handled automatically at the platform level.

The logic for migrating a virtual machine is influenced by factors such as:

The amount of data being moved.

The amount of space reduction in the source datastore.

The amount of additional space on the destination datastore.

Linked clone decisions also depend on whether or not the destination datastore has a copy of a base disk or if a shadow virtual machine must be instantiated.

Putting a linked clone on a datastore without the base disk results in more space used on the datastore versus placing the clone on a disk where a shadow virtual machine already exists.

During the initial placement, Storage DRS selects a datastore that contains a shadow virtual machine so that placement results in maximum space savings. If necessary, initial placement recommendations can contain prerequisite moves to evacuate existing virtual machines from the destination datastore.

If there is not a datastore available that already contains the base or a shadow virtual machine, vCloud Director makes a full clone to create a shadow virtual machine in a selected datastore, then makes linked clones in the selected datastore.

The latest model in Storage DRS takes the linked clone sharing into account when calculating the effects of potential moves.

Linked clones and virtual machines that are not linked clones can reside on the same datastores.