How to compact VMDK and reduce disk size with VMware Workstation? (v.11.0.0 bug report)

[codeeditor]

Hi!

My system: Windows 8.1 with update x64

VMware Workstation version 11.0.0 build-2305329

VMware virtual machines:

Ubuntu server 12.04 x64 (easy install)

Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 x64 (easy install)

Debian 7 x64

Disks type: VMDK (dynamic size, 30 GB max size each)

File system: EXT4

Vmware Tools installed

Reproduce issue:

1. Fill up disks with 10GB of data on every VMs

2. Remove data by executing rm -rf*

3. Execute command

dd if=/dev/zero of=wipefile bs=1024x1024; rm wipefile

4. Shut down VMs and run "defragment disk" & "compact disk" from Virtual machines settings. I was ever trying "Disk Cleanup" ending with "cleanup is not necessary".

5. PROBLEM: disks are not compacted(size not reduced). VMDK size doesn't change a bit. I'm assuming that VMDK size should be reduced 10 GB at least for every machine?

Only clone virtual machine operation results reduction of disk size.

I spend already few hours reading documentation and forums without success. Thi is some kind of Vmware bug or my mistake? Could you help?

SOLVED:

This is VMware Workstation version 11 bug. On version 10.0.5 build-2443746 problem doesn't exist and everything working as expected.

Best regards

[z000]

I'm having essentially the same problem with VMware Player 7.0. The procedure that used to work in previous versions to compact a VMDK after zero-filling it, is now not working. When I hit "Compact" essentially nothing happens, where before I would get the zero-filled space reclaimed and the VMDK file size reduced accordingly. I think it must be a bug.

It's been difficult to find anyone discussing it because in almost all instances turned up by a web search where people complained about VMDK compaction problems, they weren't zero-filling first so their problem was their own lack of understanding of the proper procedure, as opposed to this new bug.

Edit: Downgrading to Player 6.0.4 from 7.0 restored the normal compaction capability and allowed me to complete my normal compaction procedure successfully. So this would support the hypothesis that the compaction problem is a bug in 7.0.

[DavidWoodward]

Same here on VMware Player 7.

Defrag/Compact Disk not working in VMware Player 7.0

But, I found a work around.  The VDDK has an application that shrinks and defragments virtual disks.

Shrink/Compact command:  vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -k "<path to vmdk>"

Defrag command: vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -d "<path to vmdk>"

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-download?downloadGroup=VDDK55U2