Shrinking Thin Provisioned Disks

[Speedy710]

I have a small vSphere 5 deployment with 1 server and local storage. I have a few virtual disks I would like to shrink but I have been unsuccessful at finding a method that works given the options with this deployment scenario. I have tried using the VMware Converter tool to move the VM to local storage and back with no success. I have tried using Workstation 8 to Compact the virtual disks while on a local machine with no success. The Shrink tab is unavailable in VMware tools. I switched the disks to independent persistent and the shrink tab would not show. The virtual disks are all in Windows VMs, 1 partition and formatted as NTFS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[RalphieK]

Hi Speedy710,

You've picked the right tools for decreasing the size of your disks. Either VMware Converter or Workstation 8 shouldn't have problems wit it. But you have to at least provide us with some error messages, screens etc. Without it there is little chance that anybody can help.

--

RalphieKay

[Speedy710]

Hi RalphieK,

Thank you for the response. Both transferring the VMs and Compact the VMDKs complete without error. I know there is a lot of space to reclaim because as an example, 1 is provisioned at 500GB and is currently at 422GB allocated but under 200GB is currently in use on the partition. Over 400 was in use until recently which is why I want to shrink it. Since both operations complete without error, what screenshots would be of use in resolving this issue?

[RalphieK]

Do you have snapshots on the disks you want to shrink? What type of disks you're using (Thick or Thin provisioned)? Also, have you tried to use shrink option from vmtools within the machine, located on your Workstation?

[a_p_]

Within VMware Converter switch to volume based conversion rather than disk based. The volume based conversion converts file based rather than block based.

André

[Speedy710]

No, the virtual disks in question do not have any snapshots. I know shrinking is automatically disabled when snapshots exist. I am using Thin Provisioned disks. (Otherwise I wouldn't be trying to shrink them.) I don't have a workstation with enough RAM to run this particular VM so I cannot try running the Shink tools from within the VM.

[Speedy710]

How do I switch to volume based conversion? I looked through the  settings in vCenter Converter but didn't see anything along those lines. From searching, it appears this method is for P2V conversions, not V2V. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[a_p_]

After selecting the source and target virtual machine - on the Options screen - select "Data to Copy". There you will be able to switch to Volume based conversion (depending on the file system - NTFS is supported) which allows you to enter the desired size for the target virtual disks.

André

[kclebak]

We are currently running vSphere 5.0 Enterprise.  I have a virtual machine with 3 provisioned hard disks.  One of them is a 1TB Virtual Disk that is Thin Provisioned.  This disk is seen as a 1 TB Basic disk (non-boot disk) within a Windows 2008 R2 Server and only has about 50GB of data residing on it (SQL DBs).  I would like to accomplish a single task, possibly two tasks.

First and most important I would like to shrink this Virtual Disk to 300GB and have the corresponding Windows volume resize to 300GB.  From within the virtual machine properties, I see that I can change the size of the thin provisioned disk, is it that easy, just change it from 1 TB to 300 GB and select OK?

Secondly, I would like to convert the disk from thin to thick.  Is the best tool for this converter/storage vmotion etc...?

Thanks in Advance

[sparrowangelste]

First and most important I would like to shrink this Virtual Disk to  300GB and have the corresponding Windows volume resize to 300GB

If you want to take your 1tb thin provision and shrink it you will need vmware converter to do this

http://sparrowangelstechnology.blogspot.com/2012/09/can-you-shrink-vmdk-make-vmware-hard.html

I would like to convert the disk from thin to thick.

Since you ahve to use converter just let converter do it.

But think disks are just as good as thick so no need to go thick.

http://sparrowangelstechnology.blogspot.com/2012/08/vmdk-thin-vs-thick-disks-is-there.html

[kclebak]

Thank you for the information.  One additional question, when I run the converter process and speficy the smaller drive size, will the Windows Volume automatically resize when I power on the virtual machine after the conversion?

[a_p_]

Within the Converter wizard you will have to select "Volume based" conversion, in order to specify new virtual disk sizes. This basically creates new virtual disks on the target and does a file based copy.

André