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IamBruceleeroy
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Reduce Fusion Disk Size safely?

Hey everyone,

I have VMware Fusion with Ubuntu installed on my Macbook Pro and with how small the SSD is I am looking to clean up some space.

When I right click Virtual Machines and select Get Info its telling me the folder size is 32GB.

In Ubuntu though its telling me its only using 3GB of a available 18GB.

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda1        18G  3.6G   14G  22% /

udev           1000M  4.0K 1000M   1% /dev

tmpfs           403M  800K  402M   1% /run

none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock

none           1007M  200K 1007M   1% /run/shm

Is there a safe way for me to reduce the space that VMware is using here?

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WoodyZ
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By default VMware Fusion creates the Virtual Machines at "/User/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines" although the User can save them to other locations.  As an example I have all my Virtual Machine in "\Virtual Machines" which is in the root of the volume not in the Users Home Folder.  Remember the .vmwarevm extension is hidden by default.

So you might find your Ubuntu Virtual Machine at: "/User/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu"

Not meaning to confuse you more however the Virtual Machines folder usually has a hidden by default .localized extension.  So in a Terminal it would look like: "/Users/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Ubuntu.vmwarevm"

In Finder it would look like: "/Users/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu"

Anyway, in Finder navigate to where you've stored the Virtual Machine(s) and use the normal Copy and Paste methods and or you can use Drag and Drop if copying to another Volume.

In Finder, Standard Copy and Paste involves selecting the Item(s) and using Command-C and Command-V or Control-Click > Copy "Ubuntu" and Control-Click > Paste Item, or use the Edit menu etc.

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WoodyZ
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If you're using AutoProtect or have regular Snapshots you can delete them.

Afterwards you can use the following command in a Terminal in Ubuntu if VMware Tools are installed.

sudo /usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd disk shrink /

FYI... To make all operations safe ensure you have a proper* backup of the Virtual Machine before proceeding! Smiley Wink

==========

* It is a known fact that Time Machine is not 100% reliable backing up/restoring Virtual Machines under all circumstances/conditions.  Also backing up Virtual Machines via Time Machine is disk/time intensive and wastes a tremendous amount of space for something that may be corrupt and worthless come time to restore it.  At a minimum I would exclude Virtual Machines from Time Machine and with the Virtual Machines shutdown, not suspended, and VMware Fusion closed then manually copy the Virtual Machines Package(s) to an alternate location, preferably on to a different physical hard disk.  Then keep the User Data that is stored within the Virtual Machine backed up off of the Virtual Machine on a regular basis so as to always have a current User Data Backup.  If you have to restore a properly backed up Virtual Machine that is not as current at least you'll have a working Virtual Machine and current User Data to go forward with when you find out your Time Machine Backup of the Virtual Machine fails.

Also have a look at: Best Practices for virtual machine backup (programs and data) in VMware Fusion (1013628)

IamBruceleeroy
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Hi thank you so much for the reply. When you say manually copy the Virtual Machines Package(s) to an alternate location, do you mean the actual folder found in:

UserName/Documents/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu

Thanks again!

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WoodyZ
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By default in VMware Fusion Virtual Machines are created in Packages vs an ordinary Folder.  A Package is actually a folder with a hidden by default .vmwarevm extension.  It is this extension that is registered with OS X Launch Services which treats what is actually just a Folder with an extension as a Package, thus giving its significance over an ordinary Folder.  Other VMware products, like VMware Player/Workstation store the files that comprise a Virtual Machine in an ordinary folder as Windows does not use a package concept.  Nonetheless one would copy either the Folder or Package that contains the files that comprise the Virtual Machine.

So you'd copy the Ubuntu.vmwarevm Package or if not packaged the Ubuntu Folder to an alternate location so as to have a backed up copy.

IamBruceleeroy
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I apologize for the deep ignorance Ill be displaying by asking this question but how do I copy the:

Ubuntu.vmwarevm Package?


Where can I find that? Do I have to do it from within VMware Fusion or from within the Mac OSX?

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WoodyZ
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By default VMware Fusion creates the Virtual Machines at "/User/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines" although the User can save them to other locations.  As an example I have all my Virtual Machine in "\Virtual Machines" which is in the root of the volume not in the Users Home Folder.  Remember the .vmwarevm extension is hidden by default.

So you might find your Ubuntu Virtual Machine at: "/User/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu"

Not meaning to confuse you more however the Virtual Machines folder usually has a hidden by default .localized extension.  So in a Terminal it would look like: "/Users/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Ubuntu.vmwarevm"

In Finder it would look like: "/Users/${USER}/Documents/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu"

Anyway, in Finder navigate to where you've stored the Virtual Machine(s) and use the normal Copy and Paste methods and or you can use Drag and Drop if copying to another Volume.

In Finder, Standard Copy and Paste involves selecting the Item(s) and using Command-C and Command-V or Control-Click > Copy "Ubuntu" and Control-Click > Paste Item, or use the Edit menu etc.

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IamBruceleeroy
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Thank you so much for the detailed breakdown Woody Smiley Happy

I am doing that all right now thanks again.

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