[Problem]: VMDK Disk space

[SrVMwarer]

   Hello VMwarers!

When I add Data to my VM surely VMDK size is increasing so when I delete that data my VMDK doesn't decrease so why is that and how to solve it?

Surely I use thin Disk space for my VMs, when I create my VMs I leave everything at the defaults.

[a_p_]

If you want to free up disk space, you may use the shrink option, which - depending on the guest OS - zeroes out unused disk space within the guest's file sytem, and then shrinks the .vmdk file sizes. Please note that the shrink process actually clones the .vmdk file (i.e. copies used blocks into new files), so that you will need additional (temporary) free disk space on the host.

André

[SrVMwarer]

Thanks André, let suppose I have a windows or linux file system how can I zero out the un-used space I am only can't imagine the steps involved so if you can spot some steps would be a great help from you

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

I'd suggest you take a look at https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2019649​ to find out how this will work.

Caution: Please note that the clean/shrink process will require additional (temporary) disk space. This is especially important in case you are using monolithic virtual disks (single .vmdk file), because the process will clone the .vmdk files.

André

[wila]

Hi,

For a variety of tips on how-to shrink and clean up your guest OS's also see my wiki article here:

Shrink guest on hosted platform - VI-Toolkit

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Wil