Can I use it without the intermediate flat.vmdk?

[costco]

VMWare .ver: [VMware Workstation 16 pro]
Purpose: Reducing disk usage of DB server
Current DISK usage: 160G

the way i used
1) .VMX
2) 000001.vmdk
3) 000001-s001.vmdk to 000001-s026.vmdk
4) 000013.vmdk
5) 000013-s001.vmdk to 000013-s026.vmdk
6) s001.vmdk ~s026.vmdk
After copying to a new folder with only the above 6, running the VM works normally and there is no problem.

What I'm curious about is that there is no intermediate flat.vmdk, so I wonder if there will be any problems with continuing to use it.

I don't have professional knowledge, so I'm wondering if I can use this method.

What I want is to reduce the folder disk usage of the created VM, and I want the server with only DB installed to operate normally.

- Defragment/compact methods didn't meet my needs

If there is a simple way to solve it, please let me know how to do it in detail.

PS : I am only using VMware Workstation 16 pro

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

VMware Workstation does not use "flat.vmdk" file by default.
Instead, the virtual disks and snapshots in VMware Workstation consist of descriptor file, and a number of data files.

E.g.: vmname.vmdk + vmname-s001.vmdk ... vmname-s###.vmdk

Files with six digits in their file names (like 2-5 in your post) usually belong to snapshots.

In order to reduce physical disk space, you may delete the snapshots from the Snapshot Manager, which will merge the changed blocks in the snapshots into the parent .vmdk file.

If you want, post a screenshot of the VM's Snapshot Manager, to find out how to best delete (consolidate) the snapshots.
In case you use "Autoprotect" snapshots (I don't really recommend using this feature), please enable the checkbox in the Snapshot Manager, so that all snapshots show up.

In any case, I recommend that you backup the VM (the VM's files/folder) prior to deleting the snapshots.

André

[costco]

thank you for telling me. André
I've been looking for related information, but I've been struggling because I couldn't find anything clear.

Now, we have confirmed that snapshots are deleted normally when deleting them.

Any additional questions
I have added and deleted snapshots several times while using the VM.

This time, due to disk capacity issues, I deleted about 5 out of 14 snapshots, but the missing data among snapshot data 1 to 14 was not visible.
Is this a temporary phenomenon??

If I blow all the snapshots, they are deleted normally.

[a_p_]

>>> but the missing data among snapshot data 1 to 14 was not visible.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean with "not visible".

There are basically two reasons why snapshots do not show up in the Snapshot Manager. One is that the snapshots were created by the "Autorotect" feature, in which case the checkbox in the Snapshot Manager needs to be enabled. Another reason is that the .vmsd file - which contains the snapshot information that's displayed in the Snapshot Manager - does not contain that information anymore. This can happen if e.g. a snapshot deletion goes wrong.

André