How do I shrink a thin VMDK?
What I am thinking of is:
- migrate the VM to another datstore, selecting “Thick Provisioned” as the target format.
- run sdelete within the guest OS to zero out unused blocks.
- migrate the VM back to the original datastore, selecting “Thin Provisioned” in the wizard.
Can you shrink a thin provisioned disk?
Having thin provisioned disk is usually no longer a performance problem so it is a valid design choice even in production. A common issue with thin disks is that the size will grow when required, but never shrink. When you require the capacity only once you might want to get it back from the virtual machine.
How do I reclaim space from thin provisioned VMDK?
Reclaiming disk space is a two steps process
- Step 1: Delete the blocks on the Guest OS. Windows Operating System. Download SDelete Command Line Tool available at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sdelete.
- Step 2: Reclaim space on VMFS. Power off the virtual machine.
How do I shrink a disk in ESXi?
Press Control-Alt-Delete to login to the virtual machine. Select Disk Management, and select the partition you need to shrink. Right Click the Volume/Partition to shrink, and select Shrink. The above dialogue will briefly appear whilst the file system is queried.
Can you shrink a VMDK file?
Virtual disks can be thinned so they consume only as much space as there is data residing in the . vmdk. Thinning is currently possible using VMware Converter and hosted products, such as VMware Workstation. For more information, see the vCenter Converter Standalone Documentation for your VMware product version.
How do I free up space on my VMware datastore?
- Ensure that the disk has no Snapshots.
- In a Windows virtual machine, run the SDelete command (or a tool with similar functionality) to zero out all unused space.
- Shut down the virtual machine or temporarily remove the virtual disk from the virtual machine to ensure that it is not in use.
How do I compress a VMDK file?
To shrink the virtual disk:
- Open the VMware Tools Control Panel / Toolbox: In Windows: Double-click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray, or click Start > Control Panel > VMware Tools. In Linux:
- Click the Shrink tab.
- Select the drive you want to shrink.
- Click Prepare to Shrink, then follow the onscreen instructions.
How do I reduce the size of a virtual machine disk?
After logging into the VM, launch the Disk Management utility by typing msc in the search bar. 3. Right-click the disk volume you would like to shrink, and select the Shrink Volume option.
How do I clean my ESXi datastore?
How to Cleanly Remove a vSphere Datastore
- Power down all VMs on the datastore you wish to remove.
- Unregister all powered down VMs from inventory.
- Unmount the datastore from all hosts.
- Detach the device from all hosts.
- Rescan for storage devices.
Can we reduce disk size in VMware?
Shrinking the virtual disk In Windows: Double-click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray, or click Start > Control Panel > VMware Tools. Note: In Workstation 9. x (Windows) and later, shrinking is automatically done while cleaning up the disk.
How do I import a vmdk file into ESXi?
VMware vSphere ESXi
How to rename a vmdk in VMware ESXi?
Verify the virtual machine referring to the virtual machine disk is powered off and does not have outstanding snapshots.
How to install VMware ESXi inside ESXi?
Go to Manage -> Licensing and then click Assign license.
How to shrink a vmdk using VMware Converter?
Maintain Size (19.99 GB) – Total size of the VMDK disk