HI,
To shrink your VM's virtual disks is a three step process:
1) Export your VM
To start this process, please navigate to the Configuration page for the VM in question. Ensure the VM is powered off (not running or suspended). Then, click the "Save as Template" button in the upper left-hand section of the screen (located directly under the "Templates" tab). If this Configuration contains more than one VM and/or network - on the snapshot page - please select only the single VM that you will be resizing, as well as only the pertinent networks associated with this VM. Then, click "Save as Template".
When the Template creation process has completed, you should be automatically re-directed to the new Template that has been created. Select the Constituent Machine. You should now be able to export this VM by clicking the "Export" button, which is located directly under the "Configurations" tab. This process may take a little while - when it has completed, you will be provided with FTP credentials to download your exported VM.
We would recommend downloading your image to a utility VM in Skytap so that you can take advantage of the higher transfer rates. We would also recommend using an FTP client such as WinSCP or FileZilla, that supports automatic resume should the connection be broken during transfer. Once the download has completed, use the 7zip utility (
http://www.7-zip.org/) to extract the image from the archive.
For further information about exporting your VMs from Skytap, please see:
How to Export VMs out of Skytap
2) Use VMware Converter to re-size your virtual disks
VMware Converter can be downloaded for free here:
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=converter&ie=UTF-8&q=vmware converter
Open VMware Converter, and click "Convert Machine". the "Source Type" is "VMware Workstation or other VMware Virtual Machine". Click "Browse" to find the VMX file in question. Then, click "Next". "Destination Type" is the same as "Source Type" from the previous page. "VMware Product" should be set to "VMware Workstation 8.0.x". Click "Browse" to select a location for your converted image (we would suggest a different location than the original to avoid confusion). Click "Next".
On the "Options" page, click the "Data to Copy" section. For "Data Copy Type" select "Select Volumes to Copy". For each virtual disk, you can enter the appropriate size in the pull-down menu. When you are ready, click "Next", and then "Finish".
3) Import your converted VM back to Skytap
When the above process completes, navigate to:
https://cloud.skytap.com/imports
Click "Create a new Import Job". You will be provided with FTP credentials for your new import upload depot. Upload the VMX and VMDK(s) to the depot, and then click "Ready to Create Template". (Of note: as you are performing this task from within your Skytap VM - it is not necessary to use the 7zip utility to compress your image first).
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