Shrink Ubuntu Server 7.10

[fwRoller]

In an Ubuntu Server 7.10 virtual machine I've installed VMware Tools but do not now how to shrink the disks since there is not GUI in which to run the VMware Tools interface. Is there a way to shrink the disks from the command line? I prefer to not install a GUI as I want to keep this virtual machine compact. Any ideas?

[rcardona2k]

There's no VMware supported way I know to shrink from the command-line in Linux, the gui way is using vmware-toolbox. You can use a third-party tool from Ken Kato at: vmshrink for Linux

I tested briefly and appears to run. I didn't check to see if my how much the disk shrank.

[admin · Accepted solution]

Just to check, this is a sparse disk without snapshots, right?

I believe you can manually shrink a disk by filling up free space with zeros, then running vmware-vdiskmanager in shrink mode on the virtual disk. I'm not sure what the program Richard linked to does, but I would expect that it does the first part and possibly trigger the second.

[fwRoller]

Thank you!

[rcardona2k]

I believe you can manually shrink a disk by filling up free space with zeros, then running vmware-vdiskmanager in shrink mode on the virtual disk.

Eric,

Correct me if I'm wrong, the shrink option (-k) is not available for the OS X version of vmware-vdiskmanager. The last time I checked it's still available in VMware Server and Workstation. So if the shrink action isn't initiated in the guest your options are limited.

[admin]

Hmm, you seem to be right. Not sure why Fusion's vmware-vdiskmanager is missing the shrink option, I'll try to remember to ask about that.

[fwRoller]

Will you please request that it be added back into the Fusion product? Thanks.