Shrink VMWare ESX virtual harddisk (vmdk)

 

cd /vmfs/volume
cd [datastore_name]
cd [folder_name_of_vm]

view vmdk allocated size  ls –lh *.vmdk
view vmdk actual usage du –h *.vmdk
Shrink the vmdk (remove zeros)  vmkfstools --punchzero VM.vmdk (not the *_flat.vmdk)
After done, recheck the usage by du –h *.vmdk