Datastore running out of disk space....

[RiderFaiz]

hi everyone,

Hope you can help on this... My server is running out of disk space. I have an old ESX3.5i server. It has 280GB disk space hosting 3 servers. But the total disk space allocation for this 3 virtual servers are about 90GB. So the ESXi server should have at least 180GB available. However, I just checked and the system told me the 280GB datastore has only 1.93 GB left...

May I ask why this happen? And how to do the clean up?

Thank you very much for your helP!

Takami Chiro

[Troy_Clavell]

Do you have any other files stored in the datastore, like ISOs?  Also, can you provide a screen shot of the contents of the datastore in question, maybe we can figure out what is eating up your disk space?

[a_p_]

I assume your VM's are running with snapshots.

To be able help you cleanup the snapshots please provide:

• the build number of the ESXi host
• a screenshot of the Snapshot Manager window (for all 3 VMs)
• a screen shot of the datastore browser window, showing all the files (names, extensions, sizes, time stamps) for the 3 VMs

André

[RiderFaiz]

hi, thank you for your both quick resposne. I would like to ask how to post a screenshot...just upload it by the "attached files'?

May you mind if I can post the info in 90 mins ... I am jus tfall back to a meeting now. Thank youv ery much for your help! 

[a_p_]

Either attach the screen shots as .jpg files or inset them directly into the message using the inset image icon.

André

[RiderFaiz]

Hi, Troy, and Andre...

Please review my info,... My build is 3.5 - 153875

I also deleted couple of the iso files which took about 7gb.

Thank you very much for your help.

Takami

[Troy_Clavell]

CH-CallAccount is 150GB

[a_p_]

According to the screen shots, there are no snapshots. However, instead of 3, you have 4 VM with a total virtual disk size of ~250GB. In addition to this the Windows 2003 server seems to have ~20GB of memory assigned to it which results in a 20GB swap file.

André

[RiderFaiz]

Hi both,

I only have two v servers running live. I took one out of the inventory...so those will still stay and eatup the storage? How about if I delete the server instead of the inventory revmoval?

Also, for the ram, if I reduce the ram size...would that help to free up the disk space?

I just gave up my meeting now... as I really want to fix this issue...

Thank you very much for your help..

Takami

[RiderFaiz]

Also, may I ask... if I want to move one of the servers out of the datastore... so I can use it on another ESXi server...how do I do so? Thank you very much again! I really appreciate your help.

Takami

[Troy_Clavell]

removing from inventory is not deleting.  All that does is remove the virtual machine from your ESXi Host inventory, but, as you've seen, leaves the files in your datastore.  If you no longer need, and want to delete CH-CallAccount, that will free up 150GB.  Browse the datastore and delete all files in the CH-CallAccount folder, then delete the folder. You will then recover 150GB of space.

If, in the future, you want to delete a VM, choose, Delete from Disk.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

... so those will still stay and eatup the storage?

VMware will not delete any VM's unless requested by the user. When you right click a VM in the inventory, you have two options "Remove from Inventory" (which is what you most likely did) and "Delete from disk" which will delete the VM's files.

What you can do if the VM has already been removed from the inventory is to just delete it from the datastore or right click the VMX file and select "Add to Inventory" and then use the "Delete from disk" option.

André

[RiderFaiz]

hi Both, thank you very much again for both your help!! I am sorry if there are some things done by my _oolish way... Thank you very much again for your  live support

Takaimi