Virtual Provisioning

Definition - What does Virtual Provisioning mean?

Virtual provisioning is a virtual storage network (VSAN)-based technology in which storage space is allocated on demand to devices. This process allows virtualized environments to control the allocation and management of physical disk storage connected with virtual machines (VM).

Virtual provisioning is also known as thin provisioning. However, virtual provisioning is more relevant to a virtual environment, while thin provisioning is more relevant to physical computing implementations.

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Techopedia explains Virtual Provisioning

Virtual provisioning presents but does not actually assign higher storage capacity to VMs. The underlying host allocates physical storage to each VM, based on actual requirements and as needed.

For example, a collective VSAN pool may contain 30 GB. A connected VM device may be presented with a logical space of 10 GB, but in actuality, the space may be smaller. Therefore, when the VM requests storage space, storage capacity up to 5 GB or more, if required and available, is allocated.