The boilerplate answer is to shrink the VMDK... but these Linux VMs use an ext4 filesystem, which VMware does not support shrinking with their conventional tools (i.e. vmware-toolbox).

In terms of windows file servers, I do not present the LUN directly to the VM, but instead just use a VMDK file. Performance seems to work out the same either way, but its a lot easier to move ...

Using VMware can save labor costs related to testing, because when a virtual machine crashes, it can quickly be rebooted or reinstalled. The virtual disks (files with the filename *.vmdk) are ...

The VMDK file format is used for virtual machine (VM) disk image files. VMDK files contain a complete and independent virtual machine and are commonly used with VMware virtual appliances.

Image-level backups allow you to perform a backup of a VM at the hypervisor level, where your backup software runs outside the VM and sees the VM as one or more images (e.g. VMDK files in VMware).

What does each do? Let's take a few minutes to look at the files, and specifically the file extensions, that you'll see within each virtual machine's folder to help you understand the role of each: ...

If you use VMware in virtually any of its flavors, then you've probably become familiar with the list of files created in each folder you create for a virtual machine (VM). Those listed files are ...

Forgo Using Extents in Favor of Right-Sized VMDK Files The other side of the coin is to not use VMFS volume extents. Instead, use VMDK files across the different datastores in a right-sized fashion.

Weekly quickTIP Physically Manage Virtual Disks Strategies for managing disk space in a virtual environment. By Greg Shields 12/26/2006 If you’re a fan of VMware, then you’re used to its familiar GUI ...