Reclaim thick Provision HDD space VMWare

[penfold]

I have added a second HDD on one of our servers which is not really being used that much. If I want to reclain this space back how do I go about it? I've read that this is possible when the disk has been configured with thin provision but I'm not sure how to do it with thick provisioned. I want to reduce the size of the disk and make it available in VMware. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[penfold]

OK, I can't see an easy way to do this as I've tried converting to thin provisioned and use the VMTools shirnk option but I don't think there is an easy way to do what I want.

 

However, I've had another thought and wanted to clarify things before trying it. As the machines which have the most wasted space are on a second drive, can I do the following:

For this example drive D exists as 500GB with 100GB used.

1) Create a new smaller HDD (E:\ 200GB)

2) Copy the contents over to the new drive.

3) In Windows change the drive letters of the existing D:\ to something else free (G:\ for example)

4) Change drive E:\ to D:\

5) Delete old drive G:\ in VMware and reclain the space it used.

 

Will I end up with a VM with a new 200GB D:\ drive of which 100GB is used. And will I reclaim the 500GB (so 300GB overall)provisioned space in my datastore?

[Guest salan]

I have doen this a few times now and all I can suggest is:

Make sure the vm is not running

there are no snapshots

the disk within the vm has been shrunk to allow the vdisk to be shrunk.

then go to the settings and typ in a smaller number. works for me every time.

The one I forget is the snapshots.

Alan

[penfold]

I have doen this a few times now and all I can suggest is:

Make sure the vm is not running

there are no snapshots

the disk within the vm has been shrunk to allow the vdisk to be shrunk.

then go to the settings and typ in a smaller number. works for me every time.

The one I forget is the snapshots.

Alan

 

Is that is using the VMtool shrink command? This only works on Thin provisioned disks though, is that right? Currently ours are thick so it would require a conversion from thick to thin.