I think I've asked this a few times already.
I understand that defragging should be from inner to outer, so its
1. Defrag Guest
2. Virtual Defrag
3. Defrag Host
I understand that both defragging in the Guest and deleting files in the Guest will cause the Virtual (sparse) Disk to grow. I further understand that Shrinking is a way for the Host to be made aware of the disk space that is available, but otherwise Host is oblivious to this.
I understand that Host defragging makes sense because Virtual Files are large files and OSX's native defragging is better suited for smaller files (isn't Unix all about smaller files anyways?...)
I understand that if you have a Preallocated disk that Virtual Defragging is not necessary.
So it makes sense to Defrag the Guest before Shrinking, as you would benefit from Shrinking after the Guest based Defrag so OSX knows it has free space available. This assumes one hasn't allowed their VM to overgrow it bounds by too much, and 2GB splits help to alleviate the need for available space during the Shrink process as well any future or further defragging process (all three types or two or one?).
What I don't know, and really wonder about, for basic maintenance, is it better to Shrink before or after the Virtual Defragging. It seems that it would be a good idea to Shrink after the Guest Defrag, but before the Host Defrag.
