Shrinking vmdk on Domain Controller

[marshall28]

if I use vmware converter to shrink vm (which is a domain controller) to the same esxi host, will I need to demote it first? can I just shut down the vm and do the vmware converter shrink and then turn it on? will this cause replication issues?

[idle-jam]

it would not cause any problem as shrinking does not change any on the hardware except the space. if you have storage vmotion, i would convert it to thin provision without shutting down ..

[marshall28]

yah I wish I had storage vmotion but the client I'm working for has not purchased this. down time is ok so I'll use vmware converter to do this job.

So to recap, do a vmware converter on the windows 2008 domain controller vm (while it's powered down) to shrink the partition size for all the partitions, along with making sure everything is in thin disc format, this will create a new vm which I can just turn on and no replication issues will occur with the other dc's.

that all correct?