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diff --git a/src/Converting_Hyper-V_VHDs.ascii b/src/Converting_Hyper-V_VHDs.ascii new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9585a29 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/Converting_Hyper-V_VHDs.ascii @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +Converting Hyper-V VHDs +======================= +:author: Aaron Ball +:email: nullspoon@iohq.net + + +== {doctitle} + +I recently was assigned the task of rebuilding our Team Foundation Server with +TFS 2010 for many reasons. One of those is because the old one has a VHD that +is consuming far more resources than it should be (it's a 100 gigabyte vhd and +only 8 gigabytes are in use). I seemed to recall somewhere that Hyper-V could +"compact" a virtual hard drive, but I couldn't remember where. After doing a +bit of searching around Hyper-V, I found what I needed. Here's a few facts +about this before getting started. + +First, shrinking a hard drive only applies to Dynamically sizing disks. Since +these do no shrink on their own (there's a lot of reasons why) but only grow, +they might need to be compacted later to free up host space. It only reduces +the .vhd file size by shrinking the 'shell' (if you will) to take up the drive +space that is not being used by the guest OS. + +In my situation, I was dealing with a drive that was not dynamically sizing but +was static. If the vhd is static, the Compact button will not show up when you +go to edit the drive. + +In my case, I did not have to compact the drive. As I said, a drive cannot be +compacted unless it is dynamic. Since mine was static, I converted it to +dynamic to regain the compacting functionality but because of the way the +conversion process works, it automatically 'compacts' the .vhd. My original +static .vhd was 100 gigabytes. The output was 15.5 gigabytes. + +Though I did not have to compact my .vhd because the conversion process did it +for me, I'm going to put the instructions on how to compact the .vhd anyways. + +For starters, the virtual machine that the hard drive is attached to must be +turned off. Once the server is offline, from within the Hyper-V Manager (it's +an mmc snap-in) go to the virtual machine's properties (right click the machine +and select properties). Select the drive you want to shrink on the left panel +that lists the various devices attached to the virtual machine. After selecting +the drive, on the right panel, select Edit. This will bring up a window that +tells you what editing a drive does and gives you the option to not show that +screen again. Click Next. From here you should have three options (unless the +.vhd is static). Select Compact and click Next. Finally, click Finish and +Hyper-V Manager will shrink the .vhd as much as it can. + + + +Category:Microsoft +Category:Hyper-V + + +// vim: set syntax=asciidoc: |