three-day-old stuck snapshot, safe to delete??

[tlyczko]

A three-day-old stuck snapshot does not respond to Snapshot Manager or Consolidation.

Given that this snapshot's date in Datastore Browser is three days old!! -- is it safe to manually delete this snapshot??

This is an important VM.

Thank you, Tom

[brucekconvergen]

I read somewhere that a guy had a similar issue, and they safely fixed it by vMotioning the VM to another host...  I'd make a backup before I tried that.

[tlyczko]

It's been vMotioned already -- by vCenter itself during the course of remediations.

I could try again vMotioning it over the weekend and see what happens.

Thank you, Tom

P.S. VMware support once told me to never storage vMotion anything containing snapshots.

[Troy_Clavell]

the snapshot is not showing up in snapshot manager?  Have you tried creating a new snapshot, then "delete all"?

[tlyczko]

It does not respond to Snapshot Manager at all -- yes, I've done that idea several times already.

Thank you, Tom

[a_p_]

Deleting snapshots usually works very reliable, so I'm pretty sure the files are still in use. To verify, open the VM's settings and check which .vmdk file is associated with the virtual disk. Does it end with -00000x.vmdk, then it's a snapshot.

André

[tlyczko]

I already said it is a snapshot.

I know how snapshots are named.

For those who are curious, it is gp10_1-000002.vmdk.

Thank you, Tom

[Troy_Clavell]

do you have the option to "consolidate snapshot" ?  Have you tried that?

[tlyczko]

Troy Clavell wrote:

do you have the option to "consolidate snapshot" ?  Have you tried that?

From my original post: "A three-day-old stuck snapshot does not respond to Snapshot Manager or Consolidation."

If the snapshot responded to commonly known things like take/delete snapshot or consolidation I would not have posted.

Thank you, Tom

[a_p_]

The important thing is whether it is associated to the virtual disk in the VM's settings! If the snapshot's .vmdk name shows up in the VM's settings, then it is in use and cannot be deleted manually without loosing data!

Another way to check which .vmdk files are in use is to check the latest vmware.log file.

André

[Troy_Clavell]

gotcha... Another thing you can try is a Storage vMotion.  If the snapshots are still present after that, try to delete all.  If the snapshot files are not present and remain in the old datastore, they are probably safe to delete.

If they are still present, try again the steps you have already taken. You don't have any CD/DVD/ISO mounted to the guest either, correct?

[Troy_Clavell]

P.S. VMware support once told me to never storage vMotion anything containing snapshots.

....and for what is worth. Storage vMotion of guests with active snapshots if fully supported in vSphere5

[tlyczko]

Troy Clavell wrote:

gotcha... Another thing you can try is a Storage vMotion.  If the snapshots are still present after that, try to delete all.  If the snapshot files are not present and remain in the old datastore, they are probably safe to delete.

If they are still present, try again the steps you have already taken. You don't have any CD/DVD/ISO mounted to the guest either, correct?

I got lucky and VMware support called me. They were able to determine that the stuck snap was not being used.

Hence I was able to delete it from the datastore browsers.

None of our VMs have cd/dvd/iso mounted unless *I* mount them!!

Thank you for telling me about storage vMotion with snapshots being doable in vSphere 5 -- I think I'll still avoid that if I can!!

Thank you, Tom