Reduce virtual machine images in Vmware workstation/Fusion
If you use virtual machines with Thin Provision disks (which are created with a minimum size and increase as they fill up with data), the disks grow very much over time, but the actual amount of data does not always increase very much. This is due to the fact that in the virtual disk there are sectors that were used by the guest operating system and then released, but in fact, there are data that are no longer needed but the space on the virtual disk is occupied. These data can be overwritten with zeros, with a further reduction in the size of the thin disk.
Thin provisioning (TP) is a method of optimizing the efficiency with which the available space is utilized in storage area networks (SAN). TP operates by allocating disk storagespace in a flexible manner among multiple users, based on the minimum space required by each user at any given time.
In the conventional storage provisioning model, also known as fat provisioning (FP), storage space is allocated beyond current needs, in anticipation of growing need and increased data complexity. As a result, the utilization rate is low. Large amounts of storage space are paid for but may never be used. In TP, these problems are eliminated while keeping overhead low. Added benefits include reduced consumption of electrical energy, smaller hardware space requirements and reduced heat generation compared with traditional networked storage systems. __techtarget
In the article, I guide you to reduce virtual machine images in Vmware workstation/Fusion
For virtual machines running Windows, there is a function called Clean Up Disks.
For VMware Workstation :
Select the necessary, off, virtual machine and go to the menu:
VM->Manage->Clean Up Disks
In the window that appears, click Clean un now.
For VMware Fusion :
Select the desired, disabled, virtual machine and click Settings in the menu bar.
Next, select the General section and click Clean Up Virtual Machine.
For virtual machines running Linux, cleaning is done from the console of the virtual machine itself, so the virtual machine must be started and the VMware Tools utilities must be installed.
I prefer to use the open-vm-tools package.
After installing these utilities, run the following command from the guest OS console:
vmware-toolbox-cmd disk shrink /
