{"id":4529,"date":"2026-03-19T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xopero.com\/blog\/?p=4529"},"modified":"2026-05-04T16:42:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:42:58","slug":"can-i-delete-the-vswp-file-in-vmware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xopero.com\/blog\/en\/can-i-delete-the-vswp-file-in-vmware\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a VSWP File in VMware and Can I Delete It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Technically speaking, yes. You can delete VSWP files. But you should rather ask if that’s truly necessary… Before you attempt to manually remove them to free up disk space, read on to understand how these files are tied directly to your VM’s memory reservation settings, as simply hitting 'delete’ is rarely the right solution for maintaining a healthy virtual infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Understanding the VSWP File: Is a Workstation a Traditional Computer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Let’s start from a different angle and talk about current solutions dedicated to workstations. Working on a computer at work or even in a home laboratory, we often forget that a monitor, mouse, keyboard, or even a \u201cbox\u201d somewhere next to it isn’t the same as using a workstation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, in the IT world dominated by virtualized, cloud, and containerized environments, it must be remembered that we often work in a workspace, that is a generated environment. Often, the boxes that stand or are mounted next to the monitors are only thin clients.<\/p>\n

Such solutions mean that the equipment on our desk is only used to display our remote environment to us, while the actual data and virtual machine files are stored on centralized storage managed by the host. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing, and containerization are often combined to create one extensive infrastructure in a company. Many global organizations have already implemented such an approach\u2014with a single, shared, and managed from one physical ESXi server farm, where the ESXi host acts as the physical server running the virtual machines. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VMware as a hypervisor<\/h2>\n\n\n

VMware products are perfect for the virtualization of entire IT environments. It\u2019s worth noting that VMware puts great emphasis on adapting their products to be hybrid. In their latest versions of vSphere, we are not only able to virtualize whole virtual machines but also containers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can also connect the whole thing to the cloud, and in this way, we get a truly hybrid solution. The VMware market, with its comprehensive product vSphere, leads the way and is set by many specialists as a role model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, managing a complex, hybrid infrastructure requires precise control over hardware resources. That\u2019s why, at the foundation of the VMware environment lies the ESXi host, which dictates exactly how memory is distributed and protected.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When managing memory, guest memory is allocated and managed by the ESXi host and hypervisor. Memory reservation settings can be configured to reserve a specific amount of RAM for each VM. Editing VM settings can influence swap file behavior and overall VM performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> The size and creation of the .vswp file are directly affected by the memory reservation set for a virtual machine. If you reserve all guest memory for a VM, the swap file may not be created or will be significantly reduced, optimizing resource usage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to vSphere and ESXi, companies can virtualize multiple servers and keep their entire pools of virtual servers on a single, shared, and managed from one physical ESXi server farm. We described the differences between ESXi and WMware vSphere<\/a> in detail in one of our past articles (for more technical details, see the official VMware documentation<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you know that this approach to the infrastructure has many advantages. In addition to the above-mentioned possibilities of virtualizing entire servers, containers, and connecting these two worlds with resources in the cloud, we also have those less obvious, but for years characterized by VMware\u2019s hypervisor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technologies such as snapshots, which allows you to create points with the state of a given virtual machine, or the ability to copy, migrate and develop templates for mass production of virtual machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How a virtual machine is built<\/h3>\n\n\n

Each hypervisor must generate and store virtual machines in some form. VMware also creates its folder when creating a new virtual machine (VM). We will find files such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n