Low space warning. Huge Other file type % Need help

[Phil_Ax]

Hi all, i tried finding solution here but was not sucessful. Maybe someone can help me

ESXi 5.5 environement

I have a VM (Windows 2012) on a datastore (datastore contains only this vm) that is running on a SAN Dell Equallogic. The datastore is 110Gb.

The windows partition is 80Gb (I wanted to leave space for snapshots process with Veeam backup).

Technically I have 30Gb free space.

Now, I have a warning saying that datastore is getting low on space. When I browse datastore I have about 84Gb of files total. I do not have any snapshot left.

I also see on the Datastore that almost 22Gb is marked has other file type. What is that?

Can someone help me with this?

[Phil_Ax]

Anyone has an idea what this other space is?

Thanks for your help

[Sharath_BN]

From the screenshot the space used is Disk(vmdk ) plus vm swap file (.vswp 4GB) and little other files as overhead.

This is normal since every time we power on the machine there is vswp is created which is equal to the size of the VM's memory configured.

The warning on the vCenter for the datastore disk usage by default is 75% You may want to change modify the trigger on alarms accordingly. 

[vXav]

Maybe try to WinSCP/SSH on the server and browse to the datastore (/vmfs/sflex.../) and have a look inside to see what's inside.

Otherwise I'd suspect it is equallogic related (replication, etc...)

[Phil_Ax]

So you're saying that it's normal that I have more than 20Gb of unknown files that I don't see when I browse datastore?

Thanks

[vXav]

Have a look at that KB : https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=20030...

Check if you have ISO or other stuff on this datastore.

Is the datastore used in a cluster managed by another vCenter?

Otherwise it might be Equallogic and its mystic things.

[Phil_Ax]

Thanks for your help vXav

Here's a printscreen of the datastore via ssh via command ls -la

Don't see where the 20Gb of other files comes from

[ThompsG]

Hi Phil_Ax,

I would start by looking outside the SFLEX-AEC folder and from the PuTTY session as you have been doing. I'd pay especial attention to hidden folders by using ls -lha or similar.

Kind regards.

[Phil_Ax]

Thanks ThompsG

I checked outside SFLEX-AEC like you suggested and found nothing big. Check print screen.

2 other directory .sdd.sf and .vSphere-HA but I already saw those 2 directory browsing datastore from VMWare

Any other thoughts on this? Where is this 20Gb coming from?

Thanks

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

As vXav mentioned you could also use WinSCP to browse the datastores and then by calculating the sizes you might locate the other files.

Another option from the command line is:

• Browse to /vmfs/volumes/<datastorename> from Putty
• Run du -hs *

This will give you a break down by directory as to where the space is however this will not show the space from hidden folders. If after running this, it shows that the virtual machine folder doesn't contain the extra data then run the same command but from the following directories within that datastore:

• .sdd.sf
• .vSphere-HA

Please note the "dots" at the front of the above directories. Does this show the other files?

[Phil_Ax]

Thanks again for your help

I followed your instruction and still cannot find where the 20Gb of other files comes from. Check printscreen

Any other ideas?

[continuum]

Please post result of
vmkfstools -P -v 10 /vmfs/volumes/SFLEX-AEC/
Your .fbb.sf looks surprisingly small

[Phil_Ax]

Thanks Continuum...

Here's the result of the vmkfstools -P -v 10 /vmfs/volumes/SFLEX-AEC/

[continuum]

Did you have a powerfailure recently ?
Looks like you really only have 3 GB of free space left on that datastore.
My guess is that there exists a 20gb vmdk or a snapshot that has been deleted uncleanly - so that only the name-reference was removed while the file is still allocated.
For further troubleshooting I need
dd if="/dev/disks/naa.68b7b27cc76181d3dd44ba51221102d07e:1" bs=1M count=1200 of=/vmfs/volumes/<other-datastore>/phil_ax.1200
download *.1200 , compress it and provide a link.
But if this was my system I would just rebuild this datastore from scratch.
Ulli