6.0.1

6 Type the command to connect or disconnect the device.
utility-name device device-name subcommand
Option Action
device-name
Use one of the names displayed when you used the list subcommand.
subcommand
Use enable or disable.
The device is connected or disconnected, as you specified.
Shrink a Virtual Disk
Shrinking a virtual disk reclaims unused space in the virtual disk and reduces the amount of space that the
virtual disk occupies on the host.
Shrinking disks is not allowed under the following circumstances:
n
The virtual machine is hosted on an ESX/ESXi host. ESX/ESXi can shrink the size of a virtual disk only
when a virtual machine is exported. The space occupied by the virtual disk on the server, however,
does not change.
n
The virtual machine has a Mac OS X guest operating system.
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You preallocated all the disk space to the virtual disk when you created it.
n
The virtual machine contains a snapshot.
The exception is if the virtual machine is used in VMware Fusion 4 and has a Windows guest operating
system. In this case, you can use the Clean Up Virtual Machine feature in Fusion to shrink disks.
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The virtual machine is a linked clone or the parent of a linked clone.
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The virtual disk is an independent disk in nonpersistent mode.
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The file system is a journaling file system, such as an ext4, xfs, or jfs file system.
Shrinking a disk is a two-step process. In the preparation step, VMware Tools reclaims all unused portions
of disk partitions, such as deleted files, and prepares them for shrinking. This phase takes place in the guest
operating system. During this phase, you can still interact with the virtual machine.
In the shrink step, the VMware application reduces the size of the disk based on the disk space reclaimed
during the preparation step. If the disk has empty space, this process reduces the amount of space the
virtual disk occupies on the host drive. The shrink step takes place outside the virtual machine and takes
considerable time, depending on the size of the disk. The virtual machine stops responding while VMware
Tools shrinks the disks.
Newer versions of some VMware products might include a button or menu item that performs the same
function as the shrink-disk command. For example, Workstation includes a Compact menu item that you
can use when the virtual machine is powered off. VMware Fusion 4 includes a Clean Up Virtual Machine
button that can shrink disks even if you have snapshots.
Under some conditions, the ability to use a shrink-disk command might be considered a security risk. To
configure a setting that disables the ability to shrink disk, see “Threats Associated with Unprivileged User
Accounts,” on page 210.
Prerequisites
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On Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD guest operating systems, log in as root. If you shrink the virtual disk as
a nonroot user, you cannot prepare to shrink the parts of the virtual disk that require root-level
permissions.
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On Windows guests, log in as an administrator.
Chapter 11 VMware Tools Components, Configuration Options, and Security Requirements
VMware, Inc. 217