VMware: Shrink (OS) volume size using VMware Converter

Lots of VMware / Windows administrators can extend virtual disks on-the-fly in a few seconds, but what is the easiest way to shrink a / the (OS) volume?

In this post I’ll show a (simple) method how-to shrink the system disk size from a virtual machine from 60 to 40 GB.

In all cases, confirm the following before shrink the size of the virtual disk:

• All snapshots have been removed;
• The virtual machine is powered off;

How-to:

Install VMware Converter and connect you’re vCenter server running that specific virtual machine

– Start the VMware Converter by clicking “Convert machine”;
– Select source server (virtual machine on vSphere host);
– Select destination server (same vSphere host, new VM name);
– Select target datastore;- Options: select “Data to copy” and press Edit;

^ you can see the source volume (60 GB) and used space (23,45 GB)

– Select tab “Destination layout”

– Click the “Size/Capacity” dropdown menu and select the new capacity in GB’s.. in my case 40 GB

– Finish the wizard start the V2V process

Result:

Once the V2V completed you can power-on the virtual machine.. check the result in Server Manager > Storage > Disk Management:

Note: If the specific virtual machine has a (MAC based) license server role please check the new generated MAC address at the vNIC!!

About Author

Sander

Sander Daems is founder and author of this blog and working as a Lead (Sr.) Consultant / Technical Project Lead at Unica ICT Solutions. Sander has 15+ years experience in IT, primary focus: virtualization, security and modern worksplace.

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