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4 Replies Last post: Jan 13, 2009 6:06 PM by Dave.Mishchenko

Shrink hard disk space of VM and release disk space in vmware esxi

Jan 13, 2009 4:27 AM

esxfreek 1 posts since
Jan 13, 2009

I have create a virtual machine in vmware ESXi. the virtual machine is 2003 server sp1

The machine is created with 150 GB HD in ESXi
in windows I have 2 partitions, C: 20Go and D: about 130Gb

I want to reduce the size of partition D to about 80Gb to free up some space on ESXi for a new VM machine. of course i can use a convertor, but that requires 100 gb(20 GB for c and 80 gb for D) to be free in esx. I dnt have that much free space left. Is it possible to resize the existing disk and release the space without allocating an extra 100 gb? please advice

Tags: windows2003

Reply Re: Shrink hard disk space of VM and release disk space in vmware esxi Jan 13, 2009 5:13 AM

guyrleech 1,462 posts since
Mar 6, 2006

Wrong forum - this is Server 2.0.

If D: isn't a system drive then I would just add another vmdk to the VM and copy the data over. If a system drive or in use then I'd use a WinPE bootable and/or Ghost or similar. Obviously you then need space available for that new drive although you could potentially backup D: to some other machine, via CIFS within the guest, delete the disk, create a new one and then copy the data back.

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Reply Re: Shrink hard disk space of VM and release disk space in vmware esxi Jan 13, 2009 6:08 AM

RDPetruska 15,420 posts since
Jan 11, 2005 Moderator

Thread moved to ESXi forum.

Reply Re: Shrink hard disk space of VM and release disk space in vmware esxi Jan 13, 2009 9:12 AM

atbnet 262 posts since
May 26, 2008

You could also use Converter and resize the disks to what you want.

Its quite handy for that, allowing you to schedule the job too if you have vCenter.

Andy, VMware Certified Professional (VCP), http://www.vmadmin.co.uk/

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Reply Re: Shrink hard disk space of VM and release disk space in vmware esxi Jan 13, 2009 6:06 PM

Dave.Mishchenko 8,436 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator

The RCLI command vmkfstools.pl is supported to experimentally support shrinking (just the vmdk you'll have to do the OS partition prior to using it), but I haven't gotten it to work with the Linux RCLI appliance or Windows RCLI install. Might be worth trying if you have no other options, but converter would be the safe option.

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