Zombie vmdk, cannot find in datastore

[HendersonD]

Using RVTools I see a bunch of zombie vmdks that look like what is shown below. They are all listed as sesparse disks

When I browse the actual datastore I see these type of vmdks but I do not see any listed as ...sepsarse.vmdk

This particular disk was recently converted from mbr to gpt, not sure if that has anything to do with it

How can I find and delete these zombie vmdk files?

[a_p_]

Flat, delta, and sesparse files are usually hidden by the Datastore Browser, and you will see only the descriptor files' names with the data files' sizes.

Anyway, the sesparse file format was introduced a while ago for Horzion View, and for snapshot files with base disks of >2TB provisioned size.

Since I also saw such files listed as zombies today, I sent an email to the RVTools author. Let's wait, and see whether he can sched some light on this.

André

[HendersonD]

I did open a ticket with VMWare and the engineer I worked gave me the same information. We use Veeam for replication which will take a snapshot of this VM, including one of it disks which is 2.2TB, and then replicate this to another datastore on the other side of my campus. The snapshots of this disk >2TB is what is creating the sesparse disks and you are correct, these cannot be seen in the datastore browser. In the end, I think this is all normal except for the fact that RVTools sees these as zombie vmdks. RVTools in a couple of cases in the vHealth tab reports what it sees but does not interpret things correctly.

1. Since Veeam replicas contain several snapshots (depending on how many restore points are kept), this is normal. RVTools reports the replicas as having active snapshots which is true but not a problem
2. RVTools reports the sesparse disks as zombie vmdks when they are really a snapshot taking by Veeam as part of the replication process
3. We are a VMWare View shop and when I run RVTools against that vCenter it reports all types of things under vHealth. Every master image it reports as having snapshots. Every replica is reported as having an active snapshot. Every virtual desktop is reported as a zombie vmdk since my View datastore is also larger than 2TB

Perhaps in the future RVTools would take into account these larger datastores and not report "problems" under the vHealth tab

[a_p_]

Just got a quick feedback from the author. Version 3.9 - which should be release soon - will take care of separse files, replica folders, and other things.

Btw. with the environment you run, I'm sure the author will be interested in any information you have, which can help to make RVTools even better.

I'd suggest you contact the author, and provide him with further details (http://www.robware.net/rvtools/contact/)

André