ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491 (single server)
Guest - a linux server, (currently powered off)
Resides on its own datastore “datastore2_vmfs5” which is 558.25GB, it has 2.40GB free
vmdk is a single thin provisioned 450GB disk which looks to be 450GB....
There is a snapshot that is about 105GB
Datastore1 is used for other production guests, only has ~200GB free, so not a candidate for storage vmotion (besides, it is only 550GB so empty it would still not be a candidate)
No additional space in the Dell T110 II or on the raid controller to add additional disks
AFAIK to delete the snapshot you have to have the space of the snapshot free + a little additional? In this case that means there is no way to delete this snapshot unless we add another datastore (perhaps via iSCSI/NFS NAS?), move it over to that ~800GB datastore & then run a snapshot delete? Is there anything that can be done with it as it is now (guessing not)?
Thanks for the assist!
According to the size in Bytes and the usage in kB, the -flat.vmdk file has already reached its provisioned size of 450GB, so it shouldn't grow anymore if you delete the snapshot. Did you already try delete the snapshot from the Snapshot Manager? Does it complain about free disk space, or something else?
André
AFAIK to delete the snapshot you have to have the space of the snapshot free + a little additional?
The disk space required for deleting a snapshot of a thin provisioned virtual disk (i.e. merging the snapshot's delta data into the base .vmdk file) could be anything between zero, and the size of the snapshot .vmdk file, or the provisioned size minus the used disk space, whichever is lower. If the thin provisioned virtual disk has already been inflated to its maximum size, you shouldn't need additional disk space if you delete the snapshot while the VM is powered off.
With the file sizes you mentioned it would be interesting to get the exact numbers. Please run ls -lisa in the VM's folder from the command line, and post the output.
André
/vmfs/volumes/52ab5660-b536b40c-2287-bc305bd94b38/servername # ls -lisa
79721860 8 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3500 Jul 21 21:46 .
4 1024 drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1260 Jul 21 20:31 ..
369128836 109970432 -rw------- 1 root root 112609599488 Jul 21 20:33 192.168.2.15 servername-000002-delta.vmdk
373323140 0 -rw------- 1 root root 342 Jul 21 20:32 192.168.2.15 servername-000002.vmdk
8418692 471859200 -rw------- 1 root root 483183820800 Jul 21 21:46 192.168.2.15 servername-flat.vmdk
352351620 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 8684 Jul 21 20:33 192.168.2.15 servername.nvram
188773764 0 -rw------- 1 root root 534 Jul 21 21:46 192.168.2.15 servername.vmdk
92304772 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 422 Feb 13 23:28 192.168.2.15 servername.vmsd
360740228 8 -rwx------ 1 root root 3071 Jul 21 20:32 192.168.2.15 servername.vmx
398488964 0 -rw------- 1 root root 0 May 10 15:11 192.168.2.15 servername.vmx.lck
356545924 8 -rw------- 1 root root 3333 Feb 13 23:28 192.168.2.15 servername.vmxf
507540868 8 -rwx------ 1 root root 3071 Jul 21 20:32 192.168.2.15 servername.vmx~
415266180 4096 -rw------- 1 root root 3470683 Jul 6 15:48 vmmcores-1.gz
436237700 2048 -rw------- 1 root root 1821176 Jul 6 15:50 vmmcores-2.gz
457209220 2048 -rw------- 1 root root 1799583 Jul 6 16:57 vmmcores-3.gz
478180740 4096 -rw------- 1 root root 3294652 Jul 11 15:17 vmmcores-4.gz
499152260 2048 -rw------- 1 root root 1825984 Jul 11 15:19 vmmcores-5.gz
520123780 2048 -rw------- 1 root root 1816130 Jul 21 20:33 vmmcores.gz
390100356 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 144526 May 10 15:10 vmware-15.log
406877572 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 106766 Jul 6 15:48 vmware-16.log
427849092 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104896 Jul 6 15:50 vmware-17.log
448820612 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 103902 Jul 6 16:57 vmware-18.log
469792132 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 108245 Jul 11 15:17 vmware-19.log
490763652 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 103926 Jul 11 15:19 vmware-20.log
511735172 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104440 Jul 21 20:33 vmware.log
According to the size in Bytes and the usage in kB, the -flat.vmdk file has already reached its provisioned size of 450GB, so it shouldn't grow anymore if you delete the snapshot. Did you already try delete the snapshot from the Snapshot Manager? Does it complain about free disk space, or something else?
André
I have not actually tried it yet, with only ~2.4GB free I didn't want to try it in fear of it failing or other potential horrors. From the sounds of it there shouldn't be in this case. I am not able to delete the snapshot right now but I should be able to try to do it later today. I'll report (hopefully good news) what happens.
Thanks!
... I didn't want to try it in fear of it failing or other potential horrors ...
That's why one should always have a good backup in place 😉
André
André,
This is that one client that no matter how much you try to convince them, they don't do backups.....
That said, you are correct, it allowed me to delete the snapshot & it now shows ~100GB of free space on that datastore. The guest is running again and all seems to be AOK now. Perhaps this scare will convince him to at least get veeam/trilead/something to do backups....