Disk Space Reduction

[dattard07]

Hi,

I wanted to get some feedback as to the recommended way to reduce the allocated disk space size to a VM.

Currently I have a VM: Server 2003, Thick Provisioned, (C:\) 10GB, (E:\) 150GB

The E:\ partition was severly over allocted by the precious administrator. What I would like to do is reduce the E:\ to 32GB to reduce diskspace consuption.

Can anyone please advise the best method to change the allocated disk space size for the VM?

Cheers.

[Rumple]

there are multiple ways to accomplish:

If you are on a licensed edition with svmotion you can just svmotion the system to another volume and slect thin provision...that will drop the actual usage down to what it uses.

You can also shut down the VM and do it as well.

You can also use vmware converter to re-copy the VM and reduce the Data Usage

You could also just add a new drive to the existing system and use robocopy to copy all the data to the new drive, then just switch the drive letters around so the new drive has the correct drive letter and then you can delete the other drive from the vm...

[dattard07]

So how do I reduce the allocation amount from 150GB to 32GB?

[Rumple · Accepted solution]

If you thin provision the VM..then it will still look like 150Gb inside the OS..but will only physically use the amount of disk space that’s actually in use on your storage

If you want to only give it a true 32gb of space visibility within the VM, then just add a new disk, copy the data, swap the drive letters and delete the original 150gb…

You could also thin provision the Data volume and shrink the physical partition inside the VM to make it look alike the data drive is only 32gb

[dattard07]

Perhaps using the vmware converter tool would be the best option, I should be able to allocate disk sizes and change disk types: Thick or Thin provisioned

What do you think?

[vcpguy]

you can use converter but it will be a bit slow, you are no longer using the block copy option but file copy option.

[continuum]

what about adding a 32Gb disk to the VM, mount it as F:
robocopy E: F: /mir
remove driveletter for E:
change driveletter F: to E:
reboot

afterwards you can delete the old 150 Gb vmd