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:

1. All snapshots have been removed;

2. 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!!