Help understanding vmdk files please

[MikeDASTEC]

I do not understand the vmdk files.

I have vmware workstation 7.1 running on Window 7. I have a Windows 7 client running under the workstation. The directory containing the Win7 VM is over 200GB! For the life of me I can not figure out why and more importantly how to reduce it. It is continuing to grow and I am almost out of harddrive space on the host.

Some of the relevant info on the client are:

Memory = 2048M

Processors 1

Harddrive (IDE): Current size = 46.6 GB, System free: 26.9 GB, Maximum size 596.2 GB.

I currently show two snap shots.

In the host's folder(directory) for this VM I see vmem and vmsn snap shot files with dates that match the snap shots displayed in the snapshot manager. They contain the words "Snapshot8" and "Snapshot13" in the filenames  so I assume those are for those snapshots and they are #8 and #13.

But it is three .vmdk files that are the big ones.

Please can anyone help me figure how to shrink this monsters?

Mike

Below is a listing of the directory contents:

C:\Users\Mike\Documents\Virtual Machines\Mike-Win7-VM1>dir /n

Volume in drive C is OS

Volume Serial Number is 7C4E-86D4

Directory of C:\Users\Mike\Documents\Virtual Machines\Mike-Win7-VM1

10/10/2014  12:52 PM    <DIR>          .

10/10/2014  12:52 PM    <DIR>          ..

10/10/2014  12:07 PM     2,147,483,648      564d81bf-ed4e-65d6-7286-6b3bcd18f9fd.vmem

10/10/2014  12:07 PM    <DIR>               564d81bf-ed4e-65d6-7286-6b3bcd18f9fd.vmem.lck

10/24/2011  03:30 PM    <DIR>               caches

10/10/2014  12:08 PM    50,647,138,304      Mike-Win7-VM1-000002.vmdk

10/10/2014  12:07 PM    <DIR>               Mike-Win7-VM1-000002.vmdk.lck

05/07/2014  07:55 AM    51,001,622,528      Mike-Win7-VM1-000004.vmdk

10/10/2014  12:07 PM    <DIR>               Mike-Win7-VM1-000004.vmdk.lck

02/19/2014  03:21 PM     2,147,483,648      Mike-Win7-VM1-Snapshot13.vmem

02/19/2014  03:19 PM       170,515,294      Mike-Win7-VM1-Snapshot13.vmsn

05/09/2012  08:04 AM     2,147,483,648      Mike-Win7-VM1-Snapshot8.vmem

05/09/2012  08:04 AM       214,696,250      Mike-Win7-VM1-Snapshot8.vmsn

05/07/2014  06:30 AM   114,296,422,400      Mike-Win7-VM1.vmdk

10/10/2014  12:07 PM    <DIR>               Mike-Win7-VM1.vmdk.lck

10/10/2014  12:02 PM               928      Mike-Win7-VM1.vmsd

10/10/2014  01:18 PM             3,932      Mike-Win7-VM1.vmx

10/10/2014  12:52 PM    <DIR>               Mike-Win7-VM1.vmx.lck

11/07/2013  02:43 PM               268      Mike-Win7-VM1.vmxf

10/10/2014  12:02 PM             8,684      nvram

10/10/2014  12:04 PM           916,296      vmware-0.log

08/29/2014  05:27 PM           580,844      vmware-1.log

07/14/2014  04:16 PM           150,211      vmware-2.log

10/10/2014  12:07 PM           153,903      vmware.log

              16 File(s) 222,774,660,786 bytes

               8 Dir(s)  28,237,348,864 bytes free

[MikeDASTEC]

To clarify, I am asking why the three .vmdk files are each bigger than the entire size of the disk used by my VM? And what can I do about it. The three files are:

10/10/2014  12:08 PM    51,035,242,496 Mike-Win7-VM1-000002.vmdk

05/07/2014  07:55 AM    51,001,622,528 Mike-Win7-VM1-000004.vmdk

05/07/2014  06:30 AM   114,296,422,400 Mike-Win7-VM1.vmdk

               3 File(s) 216,333,287,424 bytes

From within the VM, my C drive says 31.7 GB used. VM settings says 47.5 GB is current size (I assume later includes the "recovery partition" where as the former does not)?

Also the Disk information indicates that "Disk space is not preallocated for this hard disk."

Mike

[WoodyZ]

Well you have yourself in a situation! You cannot shrink the disk because it has Snapshots and you can't delete the Snapshots because you do not have adequate free disk space on the Host to perform such operations.  You'll need to temporarily copy the Virtual Machine to a disk that has adequate adequate free disk space on the Host to perform such operations and then after testing it you can copy it back.  Once you copy the VM to another disk that has adequate adequate free disk space, the amount of free disk space will need to be a little bit more then what is shown taken up by the Guest OSes Filesystem from within the Guest OS.  You know, some extra room besides what's actually needed, a few extra GB doesn't hurt.

There is also another way to consolidate the .vmdk files by create a new one base on the chain of .vmdk files using vmware-vdiskmanager to another location and then swap out the disks.  Although that said if you didn't understand what I just said in the last sentence do what was first mentioned.

[MikeDASTEC]

WoodyZ,

Thank you for your help. I don't quite follow...

1) Are you saying I need to delete my snapshots before I can shrink? If so I did not know that.

2) Are you saying I can not delete snapshots without having more disk space on the host?

If I understand, I need to move the entire folder to a different drive and then do the shrink? And how do I do a "shrink"? I shut the VM down, went to settings, selected the harddrive and under Utilities I see Map, Defrag, Expand and Compact. If I try Compact I get an error: "One of the parameters supplied is invalid."

Again - thank you very very much for your help.

Mike

How in the heck did I end up in this situation to start with!!?!?!?

[WoodyZ]

1) Are you saying I need to delete my snapshots before I can shrink? If so I did not know that.

I'm not sitting at a system I can test however IIRC a VM with Snapshots cannot be shrunk, they need to be deleted first however in your case, using monolithicSparse disk of the current size it is with the amount of free Host disk space it's not adequate to do either, hence the catch 22.

2) Are you saying I can not delete snapshots without having more disk space on the host?

If I understand, I need to move the entire folder to a different drive and then do the shrink?

You cannot do anything with that VM on the current Host Disk because it does not have adequate free disk space on the to perform such operations.

How in the heck did I end up in this situation to start with!!?!?!?

Possibly by not keep an eye on things!   This is the draw back with using monolithicSparse disks vs, twoGbMaxExtentSparse type disks however when using such a large max capacity, in your case 596.2 GB, using a twoGbMaxExtentSparse type disk with to many Snapshots can have issues with having to many file handles open in the Host OS in some cases.  So if one doesn't need a 500 GB vDisk then use a much smaller disk if going to use g monolithicSparse disks.  With the twoGbMaxExtentSparse type disk one only needs a bit more then 2 GB free as it process one Extent at a time unlike the monolithicSparse disk where it the whole disk (snapshot disk) at a time.

[dxiv]

       You cannot shrink the disk because it has Snapshots and you can't delete the Snapshots because you do not have adequate free disk space on the Host     

...and can't use VM / Manage / Clean Up Disks, either, which works with snapshots and doesn't require spare disk space on the host. But I think the command was introduced (in v9 maybe?) later than v7.1 which is OP's version.

I don't know much about vmdk internals or format compatibility across versions but, assuming it hasn't changed since v7.1, it might be technically possible to install a v10 trial, run Clean Up Disks, then revert to v7.1 and hope nothing broke in the process. ( Loud disclaimer: it's not something I've tried, and wouldn't dream trying it without having a full backup handy in case planets don't align. )

Liviu