Deleting unused space on standalone Esxi host

[TECH198]

When i delete datastore on ESXi, space is not freed on Mac, only on host. Runnig VMWare Fusion 11.0.2 | ESXi 6.7

I can understand when you delete VMFS the data still remains in the datastore, which would be why you need to run VMFS command tool..

But in my case the entire datastore is deleted.. I thought it would be best to eliminate the "container". as surly any deletion of a datastore would be guaranteed to free up space no ?

Esxi reports 0% used and 0% free and no datastores.. but on Mac the ESXi bundle is showing 14Gig still

I get round this, being in a test environment, deleting Esxi, and installing fresh, which only shows 5Gig instead... But there would have to be a better way. i would have thought,

Did i have to use command tool to delete space BEFORE removing datastore ?

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

To free up disk space on the host system (your Mac) it would be necessary to zero out the unused disk space within the VM, and then shrink the ESXi VM.

However, I've never done this with an ESXi VM.

What may be an option for your lab - that's what I do - is to use separate virtual disks, on which you create the datastore(s). This way you can easily delete a datastore from within the ESXi VM, and then remove/delete the virtual disk from the VM's settings.

André

[TECH198]

I tried this ... I created a thin disk, then followed the link:

https://www.blackmanticore.com/a30e8ac2ca8f942da4c9b058d92fa089​

However i got this error:

so i a second disk for datastore would the only way, vmkfstools only works on thick disks

In a standard vmware fusion serario.. with a expanding disks, part of Fusion there is "Clean up virtual machine" which reclaims space on physical drive..

"vmkfstools" i thought would have been similar, seeing how that is not possible on ESXI treated VM.