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TiborMa
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-03-2015 11:43 PM
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Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed - vCenter 5.1 U1 + ESXi 5.1 + VDP 5.8.0

Hi,

I face issue as many of other people do, when snapshot is deleted, delta files are still there and warning message "Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed" is showed on VM.

It happened only rare but, trying to find root cause. It's happened only on VM which is located on ESXi 5.1 build 799733 which is in backup job in VDP 5.8.0.

Is that snapshot problem, bug in ESXi version?

cannot find any release notes, where this is documented as bug.

Thanks

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TiborMa
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-04-2015 05:50 AM
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I found finally a reason, so for other users... ESXi 5.1 build 799733 has a bug which is solved in Update 1 and higher and is related to quiesced snapshots which are created by VDP, that's why is there so many delta disks.

ESXi 5.1 Update 1 Release Notes

  • When the quiesced snapshot operation fails the redo logs are not consolidated
    • When you attempt to take a quiesced snapshot of a virtual machine, if the snapshot operation fails towards the end of its completion, the redo logs created as part of the snapshot are not consolidated. The redo logs might consume a lot of datastore space.
    • This issue is resolved in this release. If the quiesced snapshot operation fails, the redo log files are consolidated.

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FritzBrause
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎09-04-2015 01:00 AM
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http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2017072 has some infos:


"This issue occurs if the backup server or appliance or other virtual machine holds a lock on the underlying base disk or previous snapshot file, which prevents the data being consolidated. It can also occur due to stale processes during snapshot creation.

After the backup completes, the backup server requests the snapshot taken for the backup to be deleted and the data merged into the previous disk. In some cases, the backup server may request the snapshot be deleted too early, while the base disk is still locked by the backup server. This results in:

  • The snapshot delete process terminating.
  • The snapshot manager having inaccurate or no information.
  • The virtual machine continuing to run on snapshots. "

This is a general issue we see in support. Sometimes the backup appliance still has the VMs vDisk in access.

Resolving file locks, removing vDisk from backup server, taken another snapshot and Delete All usually does the trick.

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TiborMa
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-04-2015 05:50 AM
Jump to solution

I found finally a reason, so for other users... ESXi 5.1 build 799733 has a bug which is solved in Update 1 and higher and is related to quiesced snapshots which are created by VDP, that's why is there so many delta disks.

ESXi 5.1 Update 1 Release Notes

  • When the quiesced snapshot operation fails the redo logs are not consolidated
    • When you attempt to take a quiesced snapshot of a virtual machine, if the snapshot operation fails towards the end of its completion, the redo logs created as part of the snapshot are not consolidated. The redo logs might consume a lot of datastore space.
    • This issue is resolved in this release. If the quiesced snapshot operation fails, the redo log files are consolidated.
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