Save & Optimise Virtual Disk Storage for FREE.
Save & Optimise Virtual Disk Storage for FREE. This article demonstrates a FREE way of saving/optimising Virtual Disk storage space using software which is freely available. Include is :1. How to report which disks are over-allocated using our very own free vdisk waste finder application from here > Vdisk Waste Finder (5310 downloads) 2. How to resize over-allocated vdisks using a free open source application called “gparted” 3. How to align the vdisk including system disks to a 64k start sector. This increases performance and reduces disk latency using a free open source application called “gparted”So to get started first of all download all the software by clicking on the application names above./Disclaimer: Virtualizeplanet will not be liable if anything was to go wrong whilst performing the following operations. Do at your own risk and we will not be responsible for data loss or down time./ How to report which disks are over-allocated. Update on this post, watch how to do this found > here <Firstly use Vdisk Waste Finder by pointing the application to your ESX server or vCenter server, providing credentials, specifying the percentage of free space you want to look for and then clicking go. How to resize over-allocated vdisks. Secondly Add a vdisk to the candidate VM of the new optimal size using the VI client. Then resize the original drive to the same size as the newly add drive:
In the VI client back in the settings of VM remove the old drive. Job done. How to align the vdisk including system disks to a 64k start sector. The idea here is to make sure your partition starts on a sector number derivable by 64, so for example 64 or 128 or 256. This will increase your VM disk performance and reduce latency. New update and “how to” video found >HERE<Follow these steps: parted will create a new primary partition from sector 63 to sector 127. That means the very next sector available is 128. Job Done. Your partition should now start on an optimized sector But how do you find misaligned disks in the first place? Click >HERE < to find out |
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Last Updated ( Mar 07, 2010 at 03:47 PM ) |
13 Responses to Save & Optimise Virtual Disk Storage for FREE.
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Is the gparted method only for Linux VMs, or can it work for Windows VMs too??
Thank you, Tom
I tested it with Windows VMs
The resizing is a very good procedure except that it fries the boot manager on Vista, 7 and 2008.
Luckily this is recoverable with the 7 install disk (for some reason the 2008 install disk does not have the storage drivers for the vm disk but the 7 cd does!?!?)
Thanks for the feedback Dave. That’s good to know as of course I only tested this with 2003. Just so you alignment is not an issue with Vista,2008 and Win7
Actually Dave I seem to recall a feature in gparted to fix the boot manager.. Will look another day.
Excellent post.
FYI Windows 2008, Windows 7 and Vista align the partition to 2048 sectors (that is 1024KB) automatically even within a VM, so no need to align anything here.
Thanks for the feedback. I knew about 2008, Vista and 7 as per my previous comment on this post. I believe they install a very partition (100mb) so they can start at an aligned sector as per you comments.
Interesting program.. I just downloaded it.. I am trying it out..
There should be an option to export to a spreadsheet like rv tools.
I am assuming the % to monitor indicates how much “wasted space” allocated but not used — threshold .. thereby it flags potential VMs for resizing..
Yes, a CSV output would be helpful.
OR perhaps.. at the LUN level to optimize clusters and see how much savings thin provisioning is providing for a given cluster.
(tested on vsphere environment)
Thanks.. looking forward to more development on this handy tool.
cheers!
Have you seen Veeam Reporter? This will give you what you suggested and version 4 comes out next week which is super feature rich.