what is sesparse.vmdk? what happens if I delete them?

[SmokeR8672]

esxi 6.5

one my VM have sesparse.vmdk files which too large and i want delete it. in esxi i click "delete all" snapshots  - snapshots was deleted. in the web application they are not. but on datastore still keep some sesparse.vmdk. when i click "consolidate disks" i get "not enough disk space". what to do? what happen if i delete these sesparse.vmdk?

[hussainbte]

from version 6.5 the snapshots are by default taken in sesparse format. earlier it used t vmfs sparse.

the benefit it sesparse allows for automatic unmap in case the data is deleted .. this help in storage space reclamation for thin provisioned LUNs which was a manual procedure in earlier versions.

Snapshot Formats on VMFS

[SmokeR8672]

yep, and so, can i delete this couple of files without damage for VM? 😃

[bhards4 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

No, Just do the disk consolidation or snapshot consolidation in place of deleting directly the disk.

Manually deleting the disk may cause issue on the VM , Like it may not poweron due to mismatch of CID and PID of disks.

-Sachin

[maxchilenet2017]

You need free space for consolidation, at least twice the size of the machine, in no way I recommend that you manually delete them.

[tmgts]

I have a truble with consolidation - process freezes on 100%. Folder with files of this VM become busy. Reboot of host by software commnds become impossible - ping lost, but  screen of hw console is same as working host. After hw reset host and VM's starts normaly. I'm found files as VMname-0000x-sesparse.vmdk In folder of truble VM. Folder jf this VM become bysy if I try do delete this files any ways - Client or CLI by SSH.The truble VM stil have a message? that consolidation is needed, but the second try was quickly secssful. I move theese files to enother folder on same volume without any problems, but I don't now how remove them.

[Vsheki]

You can delete it for getting new space, but don't recommend you doing some operations between snapshots versions and related to that sesparse disk. On the other hand you may face lack of performance experience after a long time.