Can't start win2008 VM with low space

[leiw324]

Hello,

After deleting snapshot has (help,jpg) error that cannot star win2008 VM,

and here is datastorage infomration: ds.jpg, ds02.jpg

Now the all users cannot login AD by this issue ! , help !

[WaffleSniffer]

Hi

As you have very low space on the datastore, my guess would be that when you try to power on the VM the .vswp file is created equal to the size of the VMs memory allocation, and is consuming the remaining space on the datastore.

The ideal solution for this is to increase the size of the datastore, however if this is not possible, you could try to set the memory reservation for the VM equal to the size of the RAM allocated to the VM, therefore the vswp file won't be created.  This may just be enough for the VM to power on.

Also, it does depend on how many other VMs are running on the datastore, you could power off some other ones if they are less critical, especially if they have large RAM allocations, to see if that frees up the required space.

Hope this helps

Adam

[a_p_]

Don't power on the VM again before resolving the disk issue.

You will not be able to delete the snapshots, because the virtual disks are thin provisioned and the snapshot size is way larger than the base disk!

To resolve the issue you could backup/restore the complete VM or migrate it to another datastore with sufficient free disk space.

André

[leiw324]

Hello,

We do not have any datastorage for this issue ..... I'm trying to delete all snapshot in snapshot manger .....

but it taking very long time to delete ....

This VM has 4 GB ran fir win2008, if I decrease RAM to poweron, what I can do ??

Thanks !

[bckirsch]

Did you make the memory reservation change?  That will free up 4GB of disk space to allow you some wiggle room.

[golddiggie]

With the size of those snapshots, I'm not at all surprised it's taking a long time to remove them. Let it remove them, fully, BEFORE you power on the VM.

How long have you been keeping snapshots for? They're not intended to be retained for very long at all. I typically start deleting them when they reach either a couple of days, or a week, old. By then, you SHOULD know if you need to revert back to it or not.

Do NOT use snapshots as a backup method. That's NOT what it's intended for. If you need to backup the VM's, and you don't already have B&R software, then look to get something.

Whenever I'm making a major change to a VM, I make sure a full backup has taken place the evening before. I then make a snapshot of the VM just prior to doing what I need. If the installs go well, within a day, or three, I delete the snapshot. 

[leiw324]

Please see attached screenshot, it already 0 ...

[leiw324]

The remove shanpshot task finished and can't see any snapshot in manager, the datastorage free size is 0 ..... what I can do now ....

I must need start the win 2008 before they come back to office ...

Thanks !!!!!!

[golddiggie]

If you removed the snapshots, and nothing else is holding onto resources, you should be able to spin the VM up. If you have multiple LUNs where the VM sits (are you using a SAN?) then you could try shifting other (smaller) VM's off of the LUN that server is on, to get more free space that way. Once you have a reasonable amount of free space (15-25% is a good start) you should be able to spin up the VM... You don't, normally, want to have more than about 75-85% of a LUN in use/provisioned. With thin provisioning, it's easy to over provision. Just keep an eye on your actual usage on those LUNs. Once you hit 75% actually consumed, start looking to migrate to other LUNs, or get more storage ordered.

[a_p_]

It seems you didn't read my first post.

It is impossible to delete the snapshots in this case. The virtual disk (w04s005_1.vmdk) is thin provisioned and has a size of ~550 GB. Its snapshot disk has a size of ~1.2TB. This means, deleting the snapshot will require additional free disk space of something between ~700GB and 1.2TB. Since you only had ~4GB free (now 0) there's no chance to delete the snapshots on the existion datastore (using the Snapshot Manager) except for the options I mentioned before.

André