Clearing Up Deltas

[klaus1013]

Hopeing for a bit of guidance on clearing up some delta files to give me some more disk space.

I have 3 VMs on my server with limited disk space and a lot of this is taken up by delta files. When I go into the Snapshot manager for each machine there are no snapshots present, so I think I can delete the delta files, however the modified dates have me confused.

For one server the original vmdk file hasn't been modified since January and there are two delta files that were modified today. For another VM the original vmdk was last modified in October and the delta was modified today.

So I'd like to consolidate these deltas back into the original vmdk if possible, if not, at least delete some of them. I've got a few vmdk delta files that were last modified back in June, can I assume it's okay to delete these.

Many TIA

Nick

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Look into snapalert from vmprofessional.com and snaphunter from xtravirt.com. You do not want to by hand delete these files as they are in use. You should either use one of the tools mentioned or go into the VIC and open the snapshot manager for the VM in question and delete the snapshot there. This will commit the disk changes to the main disk and do as you desire in a safe fashion.

You should not be running with snapshots as it can cause all sorts of nasty issues.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/

Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[petedr]

If you don't see the snapshots in snapshot manager you could try adding a new snapsnot and then doing a Delete All. That should clear it those delta files. Though you may want to check with Vmware support to make sure.

[klaus1013]

Thanks guys, I'll have a look at those tools and seeing as we pay for support I'll also log a call.

Cheers,

Nick

[petedr]

Thanks, hopefully it works out and you are able to remove the delta files.