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yuangulu951
Contributor
Contributor

Can I delete sesparse.vmdk directly?

Dear Guys,

I found these files inside the disk are very Big, can I delete sesparse.vmdk directly?

If the system(VM) still work after delete these files,I hope everyone can provide an effective solution to delete these files, Many thanks!

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TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

No you cannot directly delete these files if you wish for your virtual machine to continue working

The sparse file is part of a snapshot it appears that you have had two on this particular machine for a significant amount of time.  this is bad practice as you have already found they grow large very quickly.

the only way to safely get rid of this is to commit the snapshot (I am assuming that you want to keep the data that is in the files)

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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yuangulu951
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you very much for your reply!

According to your statement,If I delete the files is a huge risk to me.

I think I can rename these files if VM is closed. When I find that VM can resume running, I think these files can be deleted. Many thanks!

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pragg12
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

You shouldn't manually interfere here. As the other person said, commit the snapshots. By consolidation or deleting all snapshots.

Be aware, since you have 2 snapshots, the commit MAY take more time hence I would recommend doing commit in off-business hours since the VM may go un-reachable during this process.

If you have more queries, let me know.

You can refer one similar thread here:

what is sesparse.vmdk? what happens if I delete them?

Consider marking this response as "Correct" or "Helpful" if you think my response helped you in any way.
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

I think I can rename these files if VM is closed. When I find that VM can resume running, I think these files can be deleted. Many thanks!

No!

Deleting, or renaming .vmdk files will result in either data loss, or at least a non-working VM.

Please post the output of ls -lisa from the VM's directory on the datastore, and let us know how much free disk space you currently have on the datastore. This is necessary to recommend steps a possible solution.


André

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TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

As Andre and I have already stated DO NOT MESS with your file systems.  as Andre stated post the output of ls - lisa to enable us to advise on how to move forward.  You will need a little more space in your datastore than the size of your original disk to commit a single snapshot, you have two I am not sure of the size of your original disk, but  you will need the size of the original disk plus the size of your two snapshots and the rest of your machine in available space in your data store.

if that is not available then there are other options. but first show the output of that command please.

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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zaheernz
Contributor
Contributor

This depends on how the file is created and if existing entry of snapshot still remains. 

You can check and consolidate any outstanding snapshots and then perform storage vmotion to other datastore. If files do not follow then these files are more likely leftover of your previous backup or snapshot. 

Sometime these files are tiny chunks and left over by backup that never been consolidated properly. 

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gcambronero
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Tom

 

I'm having exactly the same problem, I'm using Acronis Backup system, and I'm currently running out of space in the data store because of these sesparse files.  My big concern right now is that I'm not able to see these snapshots listed in the vSphere panel.

So, my question is, how can I get rid of these files before my DS runs out of space?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

To find out what can be done, please run ls -lisa > filelist.txt in the VM's folder, then download filelist.txt from the datastore, and attach it to your next reply, or - even better - open a new discussion for this issue.
In addition to the file listing post the df command's output to see how much disk space is currently available.
 
In most similar cases that I saw so far, the backup did not release/unmount the VM's hot-added .vmdk file from the backup server/proxy, thus blocking the snapshot consolidation. The reason why I'm asking for the file listing and free disk space is to see, if there's sufficient free disk space available on the datastore to avoid even more issues.
If you are sure that the VM's virtual disk has been "Thick" provisioned, you may proceed with detaching the VM's virtual disk from the backup server/proxy, which should allow to consolidate/delete the snapshots. What I recommend in that case, is to cleanly shutdown the VM, take another snapshot, and finally run "Delete All" from the Snapshot Manager. 
 
André
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gcambronero
Contributor
Contributor

Hello

Thank you for getting back to me, please the info below

One more note here: the VM has 3 disks, its a DB server and the two disks that are having this problem are the two 960GB located one in Data 1 and the other in Data 2; this last DS is the one that is giving me a hard time.

This issue started 20 days ago, and from I can see the user changed the permissions for the whole drive unit to protect it and just SQLSERVER can make changes on the disk, not sure if this could be relevant here.

What you are mention make sense however if I try to delete some old sesparse files are not possible, it says are locked.

total 1758607488

    836    128 drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         90112 May 22 16:08 .

      4   1024 drwxr-xr-t    1 root     root         73728 May 22 16:08 ..

12584708   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 10:24 Server 1_2-000001-ctk.vmdk

8390404 50656256 -rw-------    1 root     root     55623884800 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000001-sesparse.vmdk

41944836   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000003-ctk.vmdk

33556228 27900928 -rw-------    1 root     root     32510078976 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000003-sesparse.vmdk

37750532      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May  4 10:36 Server 1_2-000003.vmdk

54527748   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000004-ctk.vmdk

46139140 75124736 -rw-------    1 root     root     80586346496 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000004-sesparse.vmdk

50333444      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May  5 05:35 Server 1_2-000004.vmdk

67110660   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000005-ctk.vmdk

58722052 101920768 -rw-------    1 root     root     107897675776 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000005-sesparse.vmdk

62916356      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May  6 06:27 Server 1_2-000005.vmdk

79693572   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000006-ctk.vmdk

71304964 84664320 -rw-------    1 root     root     90333933568 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000006-sesparse.vmdk

75499268      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May  7 06:39 Server 1_2-000006.vmdk

92276484   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000007-ctk.vmdk

83887876 87640064 -rw-------    1 root     root     93344305152 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000007-sesparse.vmdk

88082180      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May  8 06:31 Server 1_2-000007.vmdk

104859396   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000008-ctk.vmdk

96470788 69539840 -rw-------    1 root     root     74908983296 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000008-sesparse.vmdk

100665092      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May  9 06:31 Server 1_2-000008.vmdk

117442308   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000009-ctk.vmdk

109053700 83608576 -rw-------    1 root     root     89240174592 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000009-sesparse.vmdk

113248004      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 10 06:24 Server 1_2-000009.vmdk

130025220   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000010-ctk.vmdk

121636612 71058432 -rw-------    1 root     root     76449808384 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000010-sesparse.vmdk

125830916      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 11 06:31 Server 1_2-000010.vmdk

142608132   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000011-ctk.vmdk

134219524 84049920 -rw-------    1 root     root     89684103168 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000011-sesparse.vmdk

138413828      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 12 06:24 Server 1_2-000011.vmdk

155191044   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000012-ctk.vmdk

146802436 91535360 -rw-------    1 root     root     97299591168 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000012-sesparse.vmdk

150996740      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 13 06:32 Server 1_2-000012.vmdk

167773956   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000013-ctk.vmdk

159385348 107497472 -rw-------    1 root     root     113606918144 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000013-sesparse.vmdk

163579652      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 14 06:39 Server 1_2-000013.vmdk

180356868   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000014-ctk.vmdk

171968260 78566400 -rw-------    1 root     root     84084584448 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000014-sesparse.vmdk

176162564      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 15 06:46 Server 1_2-000014.vmdk

192939780   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000015-ctk.vmdk

184551172 78480384 -rw-------    1 root     root     84009078784 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000015-sesparse.vmdk

188745476      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 16 06:28 Server 1_2-000015.vmdk

205522692   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000016-ctk.vmdk

197134084 87215104 -rw-------    1 root     root     92907163648 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000016-sesparse.vmdk

201328388      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 17 06:31 Server 1_2-000016.vmdk

218105604   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000017-ctk.vmdk

209716996 62680064 -rw-------    1 root     root     67674923008 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000017-sesparse.vmdk

213911300      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 18 06:36 Server 1_2-000017.vmdk

230688516   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000018-ctk.vmdk

222299908 81642496 -rw-------    1 root     root     87217405952 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000018-sesparse.vmdk

226494212      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 19 06:37 Server 1_2-000018.vmdk

243271428   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000019-ctk.vmdk

234882820 61325312 -rw-------    1 root     root     66414252032 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000019-sesparse.vmdk

239077124      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 20 11:36 Server 1_2-000019.vmdk

255854340   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000020-ctk.vmdk

247465732 59578368 -rw-------    1 root     root     63310921728 May 22 06:27 Server 1_2-000020-sesparse.vmdk

251660036      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 21 06:40 Server 1_2-000020.vmdk

268437252   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 08:18 Server 1_2-000021-ctk.vmdk

260048644 12176384 -rw-------    1 root     root     16470642688 May 22 08:18 Server 1_2-000021-sesparse.vmdk

264242948      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 22 08:17 Server 1_2-000021.vmdk

281020164   8192 -rw-------    1 root     root       7864832 May 22 09:16 Server 1_2-000022-ctk.vmdk

272631556 11281408 -rw-------    1 root     root     13743726592 May 22 16:08 Server 1_2-000022-sesparse.vmdk

276825860      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           394 May 22 09:21 Server 1_2-000022.vmdk

   1796 290291712 -rw-------    1 root     root     1030792151040 May  4 05:17 Server 1_2-flat.vmdk

4196100      0 -rw-------    1 root     root           534 May 22 09:52 Server 1_2.vmdk

 

Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on

VMFS-6     215.5G  22.5G    193.0G  10% /vmfs/volumes/datastore1

VMFS-6       1.7T   1.2T    592.2G  67% /vmfs/volumes/Data 1

VMFS-6       1.7T   1.6T    109.2G  94% /vmfs/volumes/Data 2

vfat         4.0G  22.4M      4.0G   1% /vmfs/volumes/6076ddd5-d334935e-3b24-90b11c20d1d3

vfat       249.7M 148.4M    101.3M  59% /vmfs/volumes/5c11f17d-47ebaf49-5794-05c7d52c053d

vfat       249.7M   4.0K    249.7M   0% /vmfs/volumes/6a345370-721c3e14-433f-26cd2c5851ce

vfat       285.8M 173.8M    112.0M  61% /vmfs/volumes/6076ddcf-5966bd12-4fa1-90b11c20d1d3

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Did you try to delete Server 1_2-000001.vmdk already ?
Bad idea - makes  troubleshooting more tricky than it has to be.
Please explain why most of the snapshots use the same timestamp - were the files moved to another directory ?

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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gcambronero
Contributor
Contributor

I did that making a copy of the file first, off course, yes.

I have no answer to that question, all I can say is that this Vm is daily backed up using Acronis Backup and this started happening between May 2/4, I could get a feedback from the owner of the server that he made a security change removing system and administrators permissions from the using G: (located in data 2)

Since then it seems like the snapshots generated by Acronis during the backups can’t be deleted from the data store 

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