Optimal FS for VMware host
 

Hi, I've been running a Gentoo system in VMware (on a Mac host) for about a year now. It's basically an apache server, and I've made very minor changes over the year other than applying security updates. The disk was configured for 20 GB max, but I'm only using about 5 GB. I wanted to make sure I had enough space for hosting larger files if needed. Despite the low usage, the actual VMware files take up over 15 GB on the host (and I've been running out of space on that drive as of late). I'm assuming that file fragmentation in the guest is causing this? I have tried a disk cleanup with VMware, but it recovers no space. I'm using ReiserFS v3 on the guest, and I have read that fragmentation can eventually become an issue with this filesystem.

I've had some issues with the guest (some file corruption due to power glitches caused by road construction around my apartment...probably should look into a UPS) and considering some major rewrites to my website I will most likely opt to build a new guest soon. I'm tempted to switch to Ext4 as I've heard it tolerates system crashes with less risk of file corruption, and given the potentially shaky future of Reiser4. Is the problem with the larger VMware files caused by fragmentation? Is there any way to stop/combat this? Would a different filesystem be better for fragmentation?

Thanks in advance!

Check for snapshots/shadow copies.

I've actually cleared out all of the snapshots at this point to save space. 15 GB is the size without any snapshots. The largest files in the vmware bundle are vmdk files. The rest are only a few MB in size.

I love JFS. With the noatime option, and the deadline I/O scheduler, this FS kicks butt.