Hello,
what I am doing wrong?
When try to add new vmdk to VM (SQL) from free datastore space I get an error. See attach....
I tried 19GB, 18GB and even 10GB... the same error. As you can see there is 19.46GB of free space on datastore.
Thanks.
chances are that you have memory swap files or snapshots using that space.
Vmware best practices is to leave 25+% free on your VMFS volumes.
I weoud suggest using a different VMFS volume if possible
can you do a refresh as the value might be outdated.
Enable SSH or the console and try with this command:
vdf
IMHO, do not fill a datastore with all his free space. You can have several issue, like snapshots problems and the impossibility to poweron a VM (during the poweron a swap file must be created).
Andre
chances are that you have memory swap files or snapshots using that space.
Vmware best practices is to leave 25+% free on your VMFS volumes.
I weoud suggest using a different VMFS volume if possible
Philip Brindley wrote:
chances are that you have memory swap files or snapshots using that space.
Vmware best practices is to leave 25+% free on your VMFS volumes.
I weoud suggest using a different VMFS volume if possible
Philip, sinse you mention 25+% I have a doubt that my host will be OK with only 19GB available...
As you can see from a screen shot in initial post I have one volume only - 410GB and 19GB is free.
The host dedicated for 2 VMs. To leave 100GB (25%) on RAID10 is not efficient in my case.
Sure I can forget about 19GB free space. But the question is would it be enough? The machines are not yet in production.
Thx.
The fact that you are trying to add an additional disk says you do not have enough space available. Without a good cushion you will have problems. With only 19GB free you could have the free space consumed overnight with forgotten snapshots. The consequences could be huge including data loss. Get more storage now before you get to production or you will be back here crying.
DSTAVERT,
no snapshots planning.
The data only will be backed up. Later VM backup will be implemented.
What you will say now ?
There just isn't enough room. Did you choose thick or thin disks? If thin you will be in trouble very quickly -- DAYS.
thick
You still need to account for VM swap space and log files.
BTW, ESX running on 8 GB USB key. Does it make something positive in current situation.
Let say I can add 11GB to free volume space. Would 30GB free space be enough? Or 25% is required.
Brief, I need the max Data Store space for VM on 410GB volume.
Thanks much...
Add up the amount of RAM that you have alocated to your VMs. You will need that amount of free datastore space for VM swap files. Add additional RAM to a VM and you will need to add that to your disk total. Count on a couple of GB for log files etc. You wanted to add an aditional virtual disk. Consider other near future needs. You need a cushion. If you were to run out of room your VMs would fail. The cost of failure is high. Extra disk space is inexpensive by comparison.
mla!
Can you enable the remote or local TSM and get the results of these commands?
1. vmkfstools -Ph -v 10 /vmfs/volumes/DATASTORENAME/
2. vdf -h
3. fdisk -l
That would be very helpful.
I noticed that your VMs are on so the swap files for memory provisioned should already be created in the datatore and acounted for.
It seems as if you will have a static setup (no snapshots, etc) but you need to leave some head room on the storage/lun. Try not go go past 90-95% usage on your storage even if you do not think usage will change.
Walfordr,
I removed second VMDK in SQL VM in order to reduce it size and provide more free disk space for the host.
Now I have a problem with free space.
As you can see on screenshot of initial post I have 410GB datastore and it was 19GB free spase when my machine had two VMDKs.
I removed second VMDK that was 100GB +. The disk disappeared in VM and currently I have one VMDK for SQL VM.
But my free space is now 31.6GB (see screenshot) when VMs are down and 7.46GB when they are up.
I rebooted the host but I still don't see my free space increased after removing VMDK.
It is even less now: 7GB vs 19GB before removing more than 100GB
Where is my FREE space?
I need to recreate my second VMDK.
Thanks.
Output of commands that you asked:
1. vmkfstools -Ph -v 10 /vmfs/volumes/SIAD Datastore/
gives options for command (probably something wrong in syntax)
2.
~ # ~ # vdf -h
Tardisk Space Used
SYS1 201M 201M
-ash: /: Permission denied
SYS2 55M 55M
~ # Tardisk Space Used
-ash: Tardisk: not found
~ # SYS1 201M 201M
-ash: SYS1: not found
~ # SYS2 55M 55M
Ramdisk Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
-ash: SYS2: not found
~ # SYS3 1M 1M
-ash: SYS3: not found
~ # SYS4 12K 12K
-ash: SYS4: not found
~ # SYS5 12K 12K
hostdstats 78M 2M 75M 3% --
-ash: SYS5: not found
~ # -----
-ash: -----: not found
~ # Ramdisk Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
-ash: Ramdisk: not found
~ # MAINSYS 32M 2M 29M 6% --
-ash: MAINSYS: not found
~ # tmp 192M 0B 192M 0% --
-ash: tmp: not found
~ # updatestg 750M 12K 749M 0% --
-ash: updatestg: not found
~ # hostdstats 78M 2M 75M 3% --
-ash: hostdstats: not found
~ # ~ #
-ash: /: Permission denied
3.
~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/disks/naa.600508b1001c8404c436d79cc661f462: 440.3 GB, 440345714688 byt es
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 53535 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/disks/naa.600508b1001c8404c436d79cc661f462p1 1 53535 430019 823+ fb VMFS
Disk /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0: 4000 MB, 4000317440 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3815 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id Sy stem
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p1 5 900 917504 5 Extend ed
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p4 * 1 4 4080 4 FAT16 <32M
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p5 5 254 255984 6 FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p6 255 504 255984 6 FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p7 505 614 112624 fc VMKcor e
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p8 615 900 292848 6 FAT16
Partition table entries are not in disk order
When you removed the 100GB disk did you delete it from the datastore or just remove it from the VM settings? The difference between powered on and off is the VM swap files. As soon as you power on a VM ESX(i) creates swap files equal to the RAM allocated to the VM.
You are working way too hard to use up all the disk space. I hope this points out just how easy it will be to get yourself in trouble when you move to production.
DSTAVERT wrote:
When you removed the 100GB disk did you delete it from the datastore or just remove it from the VM settings?
The difference between powered on and off is the VM swap files. As soon as you power on a VM ESX(i) creates swap files equal to the RAM allocated to the VM.
1. removed from the machine only. After your tip found it on datastore
2. each VMs use 12GB of RAM (32GB total on host). I will leave 30GB of free space on Datastore. Is there a settings for log file size control?
Sure, I have to read more... Didn't touch ESX during 2 years (worked with Hyper-V). And definitely forgot some important things.
Thanks to all for the help...
Are you now all set after deleting the actual VMDK from the datastore? When you remove virtual disk pay attention to the pompt on the right side. This way you do not have to go to the datastore to manually remove it.
Output of commands that you asked:
1. vmkfstools -Ph -v 10 /vmfs/volumes/SIAD Datastore/
gives options for command (probably something wrong in syntax)
You got the error because of your datastore name. If you press tab while typing the name autocomplete will escape the space for you, otherwize use quotes for the path. This command will show you the datastore capacity and maximum files/files hooks available. Its a handy command. I renamed one of my lab datastore and completed the command to show you the output.
# vmkfstools -Ph -v 10 /vmfs/volumes/SIAD\ Datastore/
VMFS-3.46 file system spanning 1 partitions.
File system label (if any): SIAD Datastore
Mode: public
Capacity 10 GB, 31 MB available, file block size 1 MB
Volume Creation Time: Tue Apr 5 10:19:09 2011
Files (max/free): 27920/27888
Ptr Blocks (max/free): 9992/9974
Sub Blocks (max/free): 3968/3950
UUID: 4d9aec9d-588f05c0-557b-000c2922a350
Partitions spanned (on "lvm"):
mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0:3
~ #
Michael A. wrote:
Walfordr,
I removed second VMDK in SQL VM in order to reduce it size and provide more free disk space for the host.
Now I have a problem with free space.
As you can see on screenshot of initial post I have 410GB datastore and it was 19GB free spase when my machine had two VMDKs.
I removed second VMDK that was 100GB +. The disk disappeared in VM and currently I have one VMDK for SQL VM.
But my free space is now 31.6GB (see screenshot) when VMs are down and 7.46GB when they are up.
I rebooted the host but I still don't see my free space increased after removing VMDK.
It is even less now: 7GB vs 19GB before removing more than 100GB
Where is my FREE space?
I need to recreate my second VMDK.
Thanks.
Note that when you power on a VM it creates a swap file that is the size of memory that you provision for the VM. So if your 2 VMs are 12GB each, they each are going to create a 12GB (24GB total) swap file when powered on. The swap file is gone when you power off.
Keep this in mind when sizing your datastores.
2. each VMs use 12GB of RAM (32GB total on host). I will leave 30GB of free space on Datastore. Is there a settings for log file size control?Sure, I have to read more... Didn't touch ESX during 2 years (worked with Hyper-V). And definitely forgot some important things.
Thanks to all for the help...
Glad you are back to ESX
You can change the destination, size and number of retained log files. They won't consume enough space to make a huge difference so I wouldn't worry about it. I would make sure that you set the datastore alarms in vCenter to monitor available space. You might also want to use one of the available scripts to keep a watch on the space as well. http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9842 is a great example.