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I have a VM (ws 2012) with 1.5 TB thin provisioning HDD and it was nearly full (1.47 TB used space)

i moved these files to 4X400 new VMD

and now i have only 120 GB used space in the 1.5 TB HDD

i reduced the partition size to 120 all the rest are unallocated space

How to reduce the VMDK size back to 120 of 1500 as the disk is thin and should only take the used space size ??

Disk management image

Vsphere datastore image

regards,

Zaid.

Zaid Al-ANi
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1 Answers1

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DISCLAIMER: be sure to have current up-to-date backup of the virtual machine and/or the vmdk file.

To recover unused space on ESXi, you need to:

  • zero-fill your guest's free space (ie: using sdelete -z)
  • shut it down/off
  • log on the ESXi host via SSH
  • use vmkfstools -K to unmap the zero-filled areas of the file

Give a look here for more details

shodanshok
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  • thank you for your answer sdelete -z requires a drive can i run it on an anallocated space? or i have to create a partition, zero fill it then delete it?? – Zaid Al-ANi Aug 25 '17 at 08:54
  • `sdelete -z` must be run inside your guest: it will consume, zero, and release a big chunk of the free space inside it. Then you can release the zeroed space by running on the host (and with the VM powered off) the `vmkfstools` command. However, if you are unsure, stop here and ask for help from an expert. – shodanshok Aug 25 '17 at 10:23