Should I defrag my virtual disks?

Source:

https://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/...sk_defrag.html

(This applies to vmware player and workstation as well as others)

Keep in mind, if you have a SSD ignore the following below. Do not defrag an ssd ever.

Defragmenting Virtual Disks

Like physical disk drives, virtual disks can become fragmented. Defragmenting disks rearranges files, programs, and unused space on the virtual disk so that programs run faster and files open more quickly. Defragmenting does not reclaim unused space on a virtual disk; to reclaim unused space, shrink the disk.

For best disk performance, follow these steps:

1. Run a disk defragmentation utility inside the virtual machine.

2. Power off the virtual machine, then defragment its virtual disks from the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings). Select the virtual disk you want to defragment, then click Defragment.

Note: This capability works only with virtual disks, not physical or plain disks.

3. Run a disk defragmentation utility on the host computer

Defragmenting disks may take considerable time.

Note: The defragmentation process requires free working space on the host computer's disk. If your virtual disk is contained in a single file, for example, you need free space equal to the size of the virtual disk file. Other virtual disk configurations require less free space.

I found this and wanted to share, as most stuff out there I see people not recommending it. This comes straight from vmware themselves.

My virtual machines were running slow lately so I did what was suggested, and wow what a difference!!

I was only defragging my pc, and in vm settings the virtual disk. But I did not do the first step. Doing all 3 improved things significantly.