HOW-TO: Compress an Existing Virtual Machine

Overview

When using snapshots the virtual machines can become quite large. Even if you clone the VM you will often end up with many files. You can use VMWare Converter to perform the "clone" and simultaneously shrink the overall disk size and consolidate the files.

PreRequisites

• If the VM is part of an inventory of a VMWare Server instance - remove it.
  
• Relocate the VM from the hosted server to a local server running the converter for best performance
  
• There must be the equivalent space available on server to perform the conversion/consolidation (you don't want to run out of disk space!)
  

Steps

• Open
  VMWare Converter.
  
• Click on Convert Machine.
  
• Select the type of source as "Other" and click NEXT.
  
• Browse or enter the path to the Source VM or image and click NEXT.
  
• For the Source Data make sure the option for "Convert all disks and maintain size" and click NEXT.
  
• Click NEXT.
  
• For the Destination Type select Other Virtual Machine and click NEXT.
  
• For the Virtual Machine Name and Location
  
  • Enter in the name of the VM
    
  • Click BROWSE and navigate to the CLONE folder.
    
    • Click on Make Folder.
      
    • Click OK.
      
  • Choose the type of virtual machine to make, choose Workstation 5.x
    
  • Click NEXT.
    
• For the Virtual Machine Options
  choose the following:
  
  • Select "Import and convert (full clone)"
    
  • Select "Allow virtual disk files to expand" for the Disk Allocation.
    
  • Click NEXT.
    
• For Networks just click NEXT.
  
  • Make sure the setting is Bridged, not NAT.
    
• For Customization place a checkmark in "Remove all System Restore Checkpoints (recommended)" and click NEXT.
  
• On the Ready to Complete dialog click FINISH.