In short, backup and reduce the disks, then use vmware tools via vmwaretoolbox. Log in to vcenter converter either by selecting localhost if the converter is installed on the local host or by ip address in case of remote machine. And, you need to be really careful because unless done properly, reducing virtual disk size may cause data loss. May 14, 2010 finally, use the vmware disk manager utility located in the vmware workstation install to shrink the file system. Shrink a thinprovisioned vmdk if youve thinprovisioned a vmdk under esxi and need to reduce it for whatever reason, the official vmware documentation suggest to migrate the vm to another datastore using vmware converter which is not always practical, thankfully an alternative exists. Remember, those are made for harddisks where you would need a hacksaw to do so. Ssh into the host and copy the vmdk file to make a backup of it, just the descriptor file not the flat file. Vmware kb 2019649 defragmenting and shrinking vmware workstation virtual machine disks.
If you shrink the virtual disk as a nonroot user, you cannot prepare to shrink the parts of the virtual disk that require rootlevel permissions. Therefore not only the virtual disk vmdk grows up but also the virtual drive inside the guest gets used nearly 100%. You cannot use the virtual disk manager to prepare or shrink virtual disks located on a linux host. In this example when cloning it will stop at 50% during the clone because our new vmdk is half the size of the original. Shrinking vmdk virtual hard disks in vsphere the problem with this technique are. How to shrink decrease a virtual machines disk vmware youtube. Shrinking a virtual disk does not change the maximum capacity of the virtual disk itself. But youll need enough space on your storage somewhere and enough time outside of business hours, because the process operates when the vm is shut down. Esxi, preferred for servers, officially supports reduce only via v2v type migrations with converter. On windows guests we can use the sysinternals tool sdelete replace the drive. Heres how you can pull it off in two steps, the first one within the guest os the mac. Shrinking virtual disks with vmware virtual disk manager. The only way to get around this, is zeroing out the unused space and use vmwares thin.
Windows users can use the following command to change uuid of d. I have a vm that has a vmdk file that is much larger than the data that is actually on the server. It also supports conversion of thirdparty virtual machines like hyperv and kvm. Nov 24, 2014 important addition regarding the linux preparation step. Centralized management console allows users to queue up and monitor multiple simultaneous remote, as well as local, conversions. Shrink a linux virtual machine disk with vmware jake. As far as its known this is an unsupported method and can defiantly corrupt or break you virtual disk. Jul 19, 20 how to import a vm vmdk, ovf, ova into vmware vsphere vcenter video tutorial duration. The size we are taking of vmware virtual machine disk vmdk, in this example, is 50gb, and we will shrink the size to 25 gb. Shrinking a virtual disk reclaims unused space in the virtual disk and reduces the amount of space that the virtual disk occupies on the host. In my case it was 8gb disk assigned and hence the value was 83886080.
On linux, solaris, and freebsd guests, run vmware tools as the root user to shrink virtual disks. So then i tried using vmwarevdiskmanager k to shrink the drive. P2v, v2v for free vmware vcenter converter standalone 6. Login to the virtual machine and shrink the os partition. So then i tried using vmware vdiskmanager k to shrink the drive.
Top 3 free tools to convert vhd to vmdk and vice versa. Shrink a vmware virtual machine disk vmdk virtualman. Shrink a vmdk virtualbox disk image stack overflow. So, to shrink the root file system you might call something like this. The disk management utility scans all the file system, that is available and reports a maximum size the os partition that can be reduced, this is based on current file system usage. In vmware fusion, first power down a virtual machine. Jul 11, 2017 on linux, you can simply open a terminal window and run the vmwarevdiskmanager command like youd run any other command. Create your first linux virtual machine on a vmware vsphere hypervisor 5. Using vmware converter to resize virtual disk files. The vmdk virtual machine disk file format is a type of virtual appliance originally developed by vmware. The format is open and well documented, which means it can be supported by other virtualization software, such virtualbox and qemu. May 24, 2015 this video presents how to resize a disk volume from a virtual machine instance running linux on a vmware esxi server. The command is just called vmwaretoolboxcmd instead and is located in the usrsbin directory by default. The only supported method of shrinking a vmware virtual machine disk vmdk is to use vmware vcenter converter standalone and create a virtual to virtual v2v conversion, a similar process to a physical to virtual p2v conversion.
However, although there is a down arrow present, you cannot shrink the disk in this way, its not supported. This post tells the step by step procedure to shrink or resize the vmdk using vmware vcenter converter standalone. If there is empty space in the virtual disk, shrinking reduces the amount of space that the vmdk file occupies on the host. Vmware esxi resize the disk of a linux virtual machine. The command is just called vmware toolboxcmd instead and is located in the usrsbin directory by default. In my test that youll be able to follow through the screenshots below, it took 36 min to do the v2v conversion. Vmware is bad at shrinking linux vms when space is freed up. You cannot reduce the size of a virtual disk, vmware does not currently allow it as it could risk losing data. This guide shows how you can shrink the virtual disk files they have the extension. The process in most operating systems removing the files from the disk merely alters file tables so the operating system sees. In this article, ill discuss how to shrink virtual disks with 2 simple powershell scripts. Best way to shrink the vmdk of a linux vmware guest ars. Alternatively you can thin provision the vm if you want to reclaim space in the short term, and keep an eye your storage consumption.
For resizing the disk, first, convert the vmdk file to vdi format using the following command vboxmanage clonehd ubuntu1864. If the vmdk disk is attached to running virtual machine shutdown the vm first and remove vmdk file from vm. However, your ntfs will still remain the same 100gb and that thin vmdk could grow to the full 100gb. To shrink a vmdk we can use an esx command line tool vmkfstools, but first you have to zero out any free space on your thin provisioned disk. It is then easier to upload and share them with other people. Enter the command to shrink the disk at a specified mount point.
Power down your vm fire up the vmware converter standalone software connect to your vcenter which manages the vm that vmdks needs to be shrinked click next. Script to create a swapfile on linux start ubuntu without starting the. How to shrink vmdk file of vm in vsphere virtualization blog. Shrinking virtual disks with vmware virtual disk manager if the virtual disk is located on a windows host, you can use the virtual disk manager to prepare and shrink virtual disks.
If you want to do a full shrink on the vmdk and the ntfs, do a v2v using the free vcenter converter. Shrink or reduce a vmware virtual machine disk vmdk. How to compact virtualboxs vdmk file size vladimir ivanov. The only way to get around this, is zeroing out the unused space and use vmware s thin provisioning to make the vmdk file smaller. The space occupied by the virtual disk on the server, however, does not change. Is there anyway to shrink this down to a smaller size. The steps howto reduce vmdk size by using vmware converter standalone. How to import a vm vmdk, ovf, ova into vmware vsphere vcenter video tutorial duration. On linux, you can simply open a terminal window and run the vmwarevdiskmanager command like youd run any other command. Before we try to shrink the virtual disk files, we should try to remove. Jul 31, 2015 ssh into the host and copy the vmdk file to make a backup of it, just the descriptor file not the flat file. Finally, use the vmware disk manager utility located in the vmware workstation install to shrink the file system.
How to shrink a vmware virtual machine and free up disk space. Zero free space using sdelete to shrink thin provisioned vmdk. Locate the virtual machines folder on your disk and identify its. Before we can shrink the vmware virtual machine disk vmdk, we need to shrink the os partition. After reimporting the vm from the previously exported. You cannot use the virtual disk manager to shrink physical disks. If you would like to read the other articles in this series, they.
Shrinking disks is not allowed under the following circumstances. How to convert between preallocated and growable disks in. If you want to reduce the disk size you could either use vmware converter to copy the vm and resize the disks at the same time or create a new smaller virtual disk and copy the data over to it. Storage vmotion will let you change the format from thick to thin and allow to you regain the space. Convert virtual disk image vmware vmdk to virtualbox vdi. Feb 24, 2016 however, although there is a down arrow present, you cannot shrink the disk in this way, its not supported. It is easy to make a vmdk bigger, but not so much to shrink it. How to shrink a vmware virtual disk vmdk server fault. Important addition regarding the linux preparation step. If you have a virtual disk that grows as you add data, you can shrink the disk in order to reclaim unused space. Open up the vmdk file in a text editor and find the line that describes the size of the flat file. Gparted will work for any os, including linux and unix provided as the filesystem type is supported. Make a clone of the vmdk that is set to only read and write to a different size.
Sure, you can just use vmware converter to make a vmdk smaller, but, for my money, it is always better to have a script at hand. Esxesxi can shrink the size of a virtual disk only when a virtual machine is exported. In this video we will shrink a vmware virtual machines vmdk by 10 gb. In the main vmware fusion window, select a virtual machine and click the refresh disk space icon to the right of its disk usage, at the bottom right corner of the window.
How to convert between preallocated and growable disks in vmware. Shrink a vmware virtual machine disk vmdk using vmware vcenter converter standalone v5. This article gives the steps to shrink a vmware vmdk virtual disk file from commandline with the vmware utility vmkfstools. You cannot dynamically shrink vmdk file size, if you want to reduce the physical size of the vmdk file you have to use tools like vmware convertor to resize it. Using vmware converter to resize virtual disk files resizing virtual disk files enables virtualization administrators to use host server capacity more efficiently. This article provides stepbystep instruction on using vmware converter and the vmkstools command to change virtual disk file sizes.
The only supported method of shrinking a vmware virtual machine disk vmdk is to use vmware vcenter converter standalone and create a. I have written about shrinking the virtual disk of an os x virtual machine here but recently i needed to shrink a linux virtual machine. The process is almost identical across all of vmwares products you just have to find the vmwarevdiskmanager tool. My next series of articles will concentrate on topics for the vmware novice. In short, backup and reduce the disks, then use vmware tools via vmware toolbox. With vmware converter standalone the process will actually do a clone of the original vm. This video presents how to resize a disk volume from a virtual machine instance running linux on a vmware esxi server. May 08, 2019 and, you need to be really careful because unless done properly, reducing virtual disk size may cause data loss. Please note that, there may be more than one vmdk disk files when you unpack the virtual machine archive. To manage disk space on the destination datastore, you can resize the disk volumes before you begin the conversion.
Reduce vmware virtual machine disk to shrink vmdk size. I tried to shrink the size of a vmware virtual disk by doing what i do with aimec2xen images. How to shrink redhat linux vmware virtual disk files. How to shrink a vmdk using vmware converter techrepublic. However, for vmware, this actually expands the size of the drive. You cant do this while a virtual machine is powered on or suspended. I was able to shrink from a 29g to a 7g vm, after i deleted a lot of unwanted files from the initial conversion. Aligning partitions, im pretty sure every common linuxdistro not older than 2 years does this automatically. In this example i am using windows 2008 r2, which has a shrink function. How to shrink os disk in windows running on vmware. How to shrink a vmdk using vmware converter by rick vanover in data center, in virtualization on february 26, 2012, 10. The easiest and vmware supported method, if the linux distribution is supported is to use vmware converter, and complete a v2v, and perform a resizeclone as part of the procedure. Jul 22, 2008 using vmware converter to resize virtual disk files resizing virtual disk files enables virtualization administrators to use host server capacity more efficiently. Rickatron shows how to do this task using vmware converter in this post.