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CyrillK
Contributor
Contributor

.vmdk file keeps expanding to full size

As i said in the Titel our vmdk File is expanding daily but the windows Server still has the same amount off data. At the moment the vmdk file is 554 GB and the Server uses 192 GB off space effectively. And on the second server the vmdk uses 160 GB and the windows Server only has 55GB in use. The Virtual harddisks are set to thin-provisioned. The vmdk already went up to 1TB off space one day then we reclaimed our space with sdelete but that cant be the solution because it keeps comming back.

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VysakhNair
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is there any snapshot ?

If yes, open the snapshot manager (right click the VM in the inventory) and delete the snapshot if not required. This will merge the data in the snapshot file into the flat.vmdk file.

Make sure you have enough free space and don't run out of disk space while deleting the snapshot.

Thanks

Vysakh Nair

Blog:- https://www.vxpert.in

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly. Vysakh Nair Blog - https://www.vxpert.in
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CyrillK
Contributor
Contributor

There are no snapshots on both of those servers.

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VysakhNair
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

can you please share the scrennshot of VM folder content with size by browsing datastore

Thanks

Vysakh Nair

Blog:- https://www.vxpert.in

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly. Vysakh Nair Blog - https://www.vxpert.in
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CyrillK
Contributor
Contributor

Hope that is the screenshot you want.

Datastore1.pngDatastore2.png

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ThompsG
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi CyrillK,

As you have pointed out the VMDK is Thin Provisioned so allocation can and will grow to the fully provisioned size of the disk.

If you could guarantee that unique blocks weren’t changing within the VMDK then growth wouldn’t happen. For example if we consider a VMDK with only four blocks: A,B,C and D. If you kept writing to block A then the VMDK size would be the size of block A however if writes moved across the blocks then it can grow. Sorry if this is obvious.

To try and reduce VMDK allocation growth, make sure that things like Defrag are not being run as this can move data to other blocks within the VMDK increasing the allocation while not increasing the data consumed within the Windows volume. I understand encryption can do a similar thing.

Kind regards.

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CyrillK
Contributor
Contributor

Hello ThompsG

I don't quite understand that. What do you mean by that? What exactly should we test now?

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ThompsG
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi CyrillK,

Sorry about that. What I meant is that the amount of space used by the VMDK might not be equal to the size that is reported as used by the OS.

For a start I would make sure that you don't have any automated tasks running things like defrags on the disks.

Kind regards.

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CyrillK
Contributor
Contributor

Hi ThompsG

Those automated tasks should they be in windows or on Vmware?

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ThompsG
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Will be in Windows if there - for example:

6E08593E-B258-4446-B853-093AAD053FCA.png

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CyrillK
Contributor
Contributor

ThompsG

Thank you for the answer. I will deactivate that one and test it for a week, i will report back to you.

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Wolken
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

You could run storage optimization inside the VM. It should help.

https://www.howto-connect.com/trim-ssd-windows-10-powershell/

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Wolken
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Also, simple restart of VM could help as well.

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