.VMDK Files

[dmorgan]

I have a couple of VM's that have many .vmdk's in their particular folders on the datastore that I do not believe are in use. Aside from the random delta file that seems to have been left behind from a deleted snapshot, there seem to be more vmdk's of quite substantial size that aren't doing anything. What is the best way to determine which ones are actually needed, and which can be deleted? I just want to make sure so as to not delete anything necessary.

Thanks in advance!

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[depping]

I would first try to clear out all the remaining snapshot files. check what the highest number of these files is and add a new snapshot, or add snapshots until it becomes the one with the highest numer. Than simply press "delete all". Keep in mind that this can take a long time depending on the size of the various files, it can also consume a lot of diskspace for the same reason.

Than if they are all gone, check the VM via VirtualCenter for disk file info.

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

[dmorgan]

I think the problem was two-fold. First off I had a couple of orphaned snap shots. Secondly, for some reason I had some vmdk's that werent doing anything. Not sure where these came from, but the strange thing is that the date/time showed them used recently, however they obviously were not. To test this, I shut down the VM and cloned it. Brought that one online as a replacement for the first. It is Windows box with a single C:, thus a single .vmdk. This is all that was cloned, the extraneous .vmdk's did not transfer over, and everything is working fine. I haven't deleted the original yet, I am curious as to why there is such a discrepancy between the two copies of the same VM. I have included a screen shot of the datastore files for the original VM. There is a .vmdk titled machinename.vmdk that is the exact right size at around 29GB, as this is the exact right size for the C: on that VM. There are also two other .vmdk's, each at 25 GB a piece, labeled as machinename-000001.vmdk and machinename-000002.vmdk. These are the ones I am confused about. Removing them from the folder prohibits the VM from starting, so it obviously thinks it needs them, however the cloned VM just has the single machinename.vmdk and works fine.

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[depping · Accepted solution]

When cloning all the delta files are submitted to the original disks, in other words it's like a "delete all".

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

[dmorgan]

Thanks, that was it. Even though I had previously deleted snap shots, they weren't totally removed it seems and just kept growing as the delta grew. Over time, it appears that 25 GB of 29GB had changed. I never noticed in the beginning I guess because they were relatively small. I had to just take a new snapshot, and then use the delete all to fold them all back into the single original vmdk file. Thanks again!

-D-

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