Reduce the image size after cloning a physical PC

Things to keep in mind when we have a cloned image of Windows from a physical PC.

Note

During these tasks, be aware that it affects the performance of the server. Avoid making them on a Ravada server in production.

Check the image format

In the following case you can see that it’s RAW format. Although the extension of the file is qcow2 this obviously does not affect.

qemu-img info Win7.qcow2
image: Win7.qcow2
file format: raw
virtual size: 90G (96636764160 bytes)
disk size: 90G

STEPS TO FOLLOW

  1. Convert from RAW (binary) to QCOW2:

qemu-img convert -p -f raw Win7.qcow2 -O qcow2 Win7-QCOW2.qcow2

Now verify that the image format is QCOW2, and it’s 26GB smaller.

qemu-img info Win7-QCOW2.qcow2
image: Win7-QCOW2.qcow2
file format: qcow2
virtual size: 90G (96636764160 bytes)
disk size: 64G
cluster_size: 65536
Format specific information:
    compat: 1.1
    lazy refcounts: false
    refcount bits: 16
    corrupt: false

2.  The virt-sparsify command-line tool can be used to make a virtual machine disk (or any disk image) sparse. This is also known as thin-provisioning. Free disk space on the disk image is converted to free space on the host.

virt-sparsify -v Win7-QCOW2.qcow2 Win7-QCOW2-sparsi.qcow2

Note

The virtual machine must be shutdown before using virt-sparsify. In a worst case scenario, virt-sparsify may require up to twice the virtual size of the source disk image. One for the temporary copy and one for the destination image. If you use the –in-place option, large amounts of temporary space are not needed.

Disk size now is 60G, below you can see that reduce image size in 30GB.

qemu-img info Win7-QCOW2-sparsi.qcow2
image: Win7-QCOW2-sparsi.qcow2
file format: qcow2
virtual size: 90G (96636764160 bytes)
disk size: 60G
cluster_size: 65536
Format specific information:
    compat: 1.1
    lazy refcounts: false
    refcount bits: 16
    corrupt: false

More information about https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Shrink_Qcow2_Disk_Files

Now it is advisable to let Windows do a CHKDSK, do not interrupt it. Finally, you need to install the Spice guest-tools. This improves features of the VM, such as the screen settings, it adjusts automatically, etc.