Hi,
First step... Shut down the VM and make a backup then...
Before we try to shrink the virtual disk files, we should try to remove any unneeded files from the virtual machine to free space.
For example, on Debian-based VMs, you can run
apt-get autoremove apt-get clean all
to clear out the local repository of retrieved package files.
Next, run as root (sudo won't work)
cat /dev/zero > /zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f /zero.fill
to fill the unused space with zeros.
Then power down the VM and open a terminal on the Linux host.
Navigate to the directory where the .vmdk files are located, e.g.:
cd /var/lib/vmware/Virtual\ Machines/Ubuntu\ 14.04/
now run vmware-vdiskmanager -k eg:
/wherever-vmware-has-installed-this/vmware-vdiskmanager -k ubuntu.vmdk
Sorry to lazy to go look up the location of where vmware-vdiskmanager lives, but that's the steps if you want to shrink.
Enjoy,
--
Wil