Shrink guest on hosted platform: Difference between revisions
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added a note to look at the vmdk file ownership after shrinking via the command line.
(added a note to look at the vmdk file ownership after shrinking via the command line.) |
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=== Using the clean up option in the menu === | === Using the clean up option in the menu === | ||
When you use the "Clean Up Disks" option in the menu in VMware Workstation | When you use the "Clean Up Disks" option in the menu in VMware Workstation 12 or later, then you do not require extra disk space for reclaiming space (see also: [https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/14.0/com.vmware.ws.using.doc/GUID-421A1073-BF16-4BC7-AA76-46B954CA438D.html Clean Up a Virtual Hard Disk on Windows Hosts] ) | ||
Currently this only works for Windows guests where the filesystem is NTFS. | Currently this only works for Windows guests where the filesystem is NTFS. | ||
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== Zero out unused space in a Linux VM == | == Zero out unused space in a Linux VM == | ||
Before we try to shrink the virtual disk files, we should try to remove any unneeded files from the virtual machine to free space. | Before we try to shrink the virtual disk files, we should try to remove any unneeded files from the virtual machine to free space. | ||
More free space means more disk space that can get reclaimed. | |||
One of the areas in a VM that can take up a lot of disk space is the repository cache. So I personally tend to clean the cache in the VM before reclaiming disk space at the host. | |||
Clean up your repositories: | Clean up your repositories: | ||
For example, on Debian-based VMs, you can run | For example, on Debian-based VMs, you can run the following command (in the VM) | ||
apt-get clean all | apt-get clean all | ||
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yum clean | yum clean | ||
The next step is important: | |||
Shut down any services that depend on having enough available disk space to run. | |||
The reason for this is that we are going to write out zero's to the file system until the file system is full and we do not want any application - for example a database system like mySQL or postgreSQL - to run out of disk space while we are zeroing out the file system. If mySQL would try to write when your disk is full you risk a corrupted database. So this step is important! | The reason for this is that we are going to write out zero's to the file system until the file system is full and we do not want any application - for example a database system like mySQL or postgreSQL - to run out of disk space while we are zeroing out the file system. If mySQL would try to write when your disk is full you risk a corrupted database. So this step is important! | ||
Next run: | Next run (also from within the VM): | ||
cat /dev/zero > zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f zero.fill | cat /dev/zero > zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f zero.fill | ||
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cat /dev/zero > /home/zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f /home/zero.fill | cat /dev/zero > /home/zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f /home/zero.fill | ||
=== Zero out a part of your disk === | === Zero out a part of your virtual disk === | ||
If your machine cannot be taken down and you do not want to shut down services that might end up corrupting files because of the "No space left on the device" problem then an idea that might work is to zero out a part of your partition. | If your virtual machine cannot be taken down and you do not want to shut down services that might end up corrupting files because of the "No space left on the device" problem then an idea that might work is to zero out a part of your partition. | ||
This for example creates a 100MB size file filled with zero's | This for example creates a 100MB size file filled with zero's | ||
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Note that vmware-vdiskmanager is probably not in your search path, so you might have to prepend the vmware-vdiskmanager command with the actual path with the command is located. | Note that vmware-vdiskmanager is probably not in your search path, so you might have to prepend the vmware-vdiskmanager command with the actual path with the command is located. | ||
If you need to use "sudo" in order to be able to run the above then beware that the ownership of the .vmdk files might get changed to root. | |||
You will have to change the ownership back to your own user, eg: | |||
sudo chown username: *.vmdk | |||
If you don't change the ownership back you might see errors like: | |||
"Unable to open file .../Virtual Disk.vmdk: Insufficient permission to access file". | |||
== Shrink using vmware tools == | == Shrink using vmware tools == | ||
Nowadays you can also shrink the guest by using the shrink feature as offered via vmware tools. | Nowadays you can also shrink the guest by using the shrink feature as offered via vmware tools. | ||
So for clarity all of the following commands are run from within the guest to shrink the disk while the guest is running. | |||
On linux in order to use this run: | On linux in order to use this run: | ||
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sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Tools/vmware-tools-cli disk shrink / | sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Tools/vmware-tools-cli disk shrink / | ||
== Shrink macOS VM with APFS == | |||
[https://communities.vmware.com/thread/581576 Solved: Shrink an APFS virtual disk] | |||
