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3 Replies Last post: Nov 6, 2009 11:45 AM by RDPetruska  

Resize Fixed Size VMDK posted: Nov 6, 2009 11:35 AM

Click to view mike16's profile Novice
mike16
9 posts since
Mar 6, 2007
Im trying to resize a vmhd. I know I have to convert it to a new vmhd to do so. Ive been searching for a little while and got a good idea on how to do it, but something must be wrong in my syntax.

Here's what I have.

C:\Virtual Machines\VM1>"c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -r VM1.vmdk -t 2 -s 14GB VM1_reduced.vmdk

from what I think the syntax is, convert VM1.vmdk into a fixed disk (-t 2), size 14GB, new name of VMDK

but when I run that, it stays the original size which is about 16GB. (Yes there is free space available in the host which is a windows 2003 server OS)

Any thoughts?

Re: Resize Fixed Size VMDK

1. Nov 6, 2009 11:40 AM in response to: mike16
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,877 posts since
Jan 11, 2005

I think you are trying to do 2 steps with 1 command, which you cannot do. If you want, you can use my Windows GUI wrapper for the vmware-vdiskmanager utility, to avoid syntax errors (and invalid commands). See my profile for website.

Realize that once you have expanded the vmdk file, you will also have to (inside the guest) either create a new partition, or extend the existing partition, to fill that new blank space.

Re: Resize Fixed Size VMDK

2. Nov 6, 2009 11:43 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view mike16's profile Novice
mike16
9 posts since
Mar 6, 2007
Thanks for getting back to me Rob. I actually pulled down your GUI wrapper earlier today, which is very slick, but doesnt seem to do what I am desiring to do (if it is even possible).

To be clear, I want to take the current 16GB VMDK and resize/decrease it to 14GB. This is primarily a test so I can resize/decrease other VMDKs that were made far too large and now we are having some space issues.

Re: Resize Fixed Size VMDK

3. Nov 6, 2009 11:45 AM in response to: mike16
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,877 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Ahh... you cannot reduce the maximum defined size of a virtual disk with vmware-vdiskmanager (or any other VMware tool, for that matter). You must create a new virtual disk and ghost/clone the existing disk over to the new one; then replace the original disk with the new one in your VM.

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