Selection of allocation policy and format for virtual machine disk images

An apparatus comprising:

• a memory to store a virtual machine comprising a virtual disk;
• and
• a processor to:
• select one of a plurality of formats for storing a disk image of the virtual disk on a storage device, wherein the selecting is based on:
• (i) one or more capabilities of the storage device, and (ii) a parameter that indicates a tradeoff between performance and storage consumption;
• and
• store the disk image on the storage device in the selected format.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a computer system that hosts a virtual machine to perform a method comprising:

• selecting, by the computer system, one of a plurality of allocation policies for allocating storage on a storage device for a disk image of the virtual machine, wherein the selected policy is based on:
• (i) one or more capabilities of the storage device, and (ii) a parameter that indicates a tradeoff between storage consumption and redundancy;
• and
• allocating storage for the disk image on the storage device in accordance with the selected policy.