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bonne123
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Delete large snapshots on a low space VMFS

While deleting an old, big snapshot (a single one) on a VMFS, I am wondering what is best practice to avoid failures and if failuresoccour, how to recover?

I guess it is best to turn off the VM - but if this is not an option?

I understand that there are differences in deleting one vs. multiple snapshots in terms of free space needed?

Regards,Lars.

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rcporto
Leadership
Leadership

I understand that there are differences in deleting one vs. multiple snapshots in terms of free space needed?

It depends the version of vSphere you're running... take a look here: Changes to Snapshot mechanism "Delete All" - Yellow Bricks

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Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

In addition to the version - as mentioned before - there are some other things to consider, like whether the VM's virtual disk(s) are thin or thick provisioned, the free disk space on the datastore and the expected changes while deleting the snapshots. Last but not least - with low free disk space - you need to take other VMs with either thin disks or snapshots into account.

When deleting all snapshots on a powered on VM, another "helper snapshot" is created, which will consume disk space. However, if the complete snapshot chain is visible in the snapshot manager, and the virtual disk is thick provisioned, you can delete the snapshots one-by-one, always deleting the snapshot closest to the base disk.

André

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