VMware Cloud Community
william450
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Script to search datastores for delta "phantom" files

hi there,

we having a problem with phantom snapshots filling up our lun's

is there a script out there to search throught the datastores to find these files?

the manual way is listed here - http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100231...

thank you

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
LucD
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

Oops, it looks as if something went wrong during the copy/paste of the script.

This should be the correct version

foreach($vm in Get-VM){
	$vm | Get-HardDisk | %{
		if($_.Filename -notlike "*-??????.vmdk"){
			$dsName = $_.Filename.Split(']')[0].TrimStart('[')
			$folder = $_.Filename.Split('/')')[1].TrimStart(' ')
			New-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Location (Get-Datastore $dsName) -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
			Get-ChildItem -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse | where{$_.ItemType -ne "Folder"} | %{
				if($_.Name -like "*-??????.vmdk"){
					Write-Host "VMname:" $vm.Name "`tFile:" $_.Name
				}
			}
			Remove-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Confirm:$false
		}
	}
}

And to make sure the forum SW doesn't mess with the square brackets, I have attached the script as well.

____________

Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
12 Replies
LucD
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

I hope I understood your question (and the KB) correctly.

The following script will look at all guests and check the hard disks for each of them.

If there is no snapshot on the guest, the script will search the guest's folder for any -00000X.vmdk type files.

The script accesses the guest's files through the datastore provider (which may not be the fastest way to do this).

foreach($vm in Get-VM){
	$vm | Get-HardDisk | %{
		if($_.Filename -notlike "*-??????.vmdk"){
			$dsName = $_.Filename.Split(']')[0].TrimStart('[')
			$folder = $_.Filename.Split('/')')[1].TrimStart(' ')
			New-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Location (Get-Datastore $dsName) -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
			Get-ChildItem -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse | where{$_.ItemType -ne "Folder"} | %{
				if($_.Name -like "*-??????.vmdk"){
					Write-Host "VMname:" $vm.Name "`tFile:" $_.Name
				}
			}
			Remove-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Confirm:$false
		}
	}
}

____________

Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos
william450
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

hi there,

im looking for the *delta.vmdk files in all the datastores

when i run this script i get this error

PS D:\Users\william\Desktop> & '.\delta files.ps1'

Unexpected token ')[1].TrimStart(' in expression or statement.

At D:\Users\william\Desktop\delta files.ps1:5 char:53

+ $folder = $_.Filename.Split('/')')[1].TrimStart(' <<<< ')

+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: ()[1].TrimStart(:String) [], ParseException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken

Reply
0 Kudos
LucD
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

Oops, it looks as if something went wrong during the copy/paste of the script.

This should be the correct version

foreach($vm in Get-VM){
	$vm | Get-HardDisk | %{
		if($_.Filename -notlike "*-??????.vmdk"){
			$dsName = $_.Filename.Split(']')[0].TrimStart('[')
			$folder = $_.Filename.Split('/')')[1].TrimStart(' ')
			New-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Location (Get-Datastore $dsName) -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
			Get-ChildItem -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse | where{$_.ItemType -ne "Folder"} | %{
				if($_.Name -like "*-??????.vmdk"){
					Write-Host "VMname:" $vm.Name "`tFile:" $_.Name
				}
			}
			Remove-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Confirm:$false
		}
	}
}

And to make sure the forum SW doesn't mess with the square brackets, I have attached the script as well.

____________

Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos
wilmanns
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I know this is an old post but can you help me out with the script

i keep getting this error in one of my datacentres.

Get-ChildItem : Cannot find path '\wshay9mshmvc01@443\Haymarket\VMDK_VOL03\SLHAY9SHAGVV02' because it does not exist. At D:\Wilmann\Deltas.ps1:7 char:17
+             Get-ChildItem <<<<  -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse | where{$_.ItemType -ne "Folder"} | %{    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (\wshay9mshmvc01...\SLHAY9SHAGVV02:String) [Get-ChildItem], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand

I think i may have something wromg with my VC as it works fine in another lab.

Reply
0 Kudos
LucD
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

That looks indeed is if there is a problem with the file structure on that datastore.

Can you check with the datastore browser from the vSphere client if the folder exists and if you descend into that folder ?

Try replacing

Get-ChildItem -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse 

with

Get-ChildItem -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue 

that way the script should at least continue after the faulty folder/file


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos
Nicodemus555
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Luc,

           Within our large environment we lose LUN space to what we call 'Phantom Disks' .. where a team removes a virtual machine but the VMDK files are left behind.

Is there a way to alter this script to deal with these VMDK 'phantoms'..?

Hoping,   - John M.

Reply
0 Kudos
LucD
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

You could try my Spring Cleaning script.


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos
nicholas1982
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Hey Luc,

I ran the following script which seems to work ok, yes its a bit slow but what I was really looking for was to scan through all my datastores and find any file with -??????.vmdk even if its not orphaned and it in use. Can you tell me if there is any faster way of doing this?

foreach($vm in Get-VM){      $vm | Get-HardDisk | %{           if($_.Filename -notlike "*-??????.vmdk"){                $dsName = $_.Filename.Split(']')[0].TrimStart('[')                $folder = $_.Filename.Split('/')[0].Split(']')[1].TrimStart(' ')                New-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Location (Get-Datastore $dsName) -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' -Confirm:$false | Out-Null                Get-ChildItem -Path ("ds:\" + $folder) -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | where{$_.ItemType -ne "Folder"} | %{                     if($_.Name -like "*-??????.vmdk"){                          Write-Host "VMname:" $vm.Name "`tFile:" $_.Name                     }                }                Remove-PSDrive -Name 'ds' -Confirm:$false           }      } }

Nicholas
Reply
0 Kudos
LucD
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

You could make a table with all the VMDK files from the registered VMs and then search all datastores for VMDK files.

The ones that are not in the table most probably are phantom VMDKs.

That's in fact what my script I mentioned earlier is doing.


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos
nicholas1982
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Thanks Luc, Do you have a simple script that searches datastores for anyfile with -0?????.vmdk I think the script I used above is a little more complex in that it searches for only orphanhed delta files, I would like to search for all, I have some instances where our backup system deletes the snapshot but for some reason it only removes it for the snapshot manager, I then have to consolidate the disks to resolve the issue?

Nicholas
Reply
0 Kudos
GrantBrunton
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks Luc, that spring cleaning script is very useful!

I've also found our backup system fails to remove snapshots sometimes but instead of leaving the vmdk files it removes the snapshot from the snapshot manager (Or leaves the Consolidate Helper) but the VM guest is still referencing the snapshot vmdk files.

Unfortunately your script fails to identify these since those files are still in use.

I wrote a simple script to quickly identify the particular guests which may be afflicted by this issue so we can check them regularly:

foreach($vm in Get-VM)
{
    $vm | Get-HardDisk | %{
        if ($_.Filename -like "*-??????.vmdk")
        {
            if (!(Get-Snapshot $vm))
            {
                Write-Host "Missing snapshot image for:" $vm.Name "on host:" $vm.Host
                Continue
            }
            elseif (Get-Snapshot $vm | where{$_.Name -like "Consolidate*"})
            {
                if (@(Get-Snapshot $vm).Length -eq 1)
                {
                    Write-Host "Consolidate Helper snapshot only for:" $vm.Name "on host:" $vm.Host
                    Continue
                } else {
                    Write-Host "Consolidate Helper snapshot plus others for:" $vm.Name "on host:" $vm.Host
                    Continue
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Continue
            }
        }
    }
}

Reply
0 Kudos
Darcos1
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Awesome script but I use RVTools to do the same thing.  The problem we are having with our backup tool and vmware snapshots is that even after the snapshot is missing in snapshot manager, the snapshots are not marked as consolidated helper files or orphaned files.  We had a virtual machine with over 30 snapshot vmdks that were all valid but did not show up on any searchable format.  The only way we were able to find them is by using this command on the first host in each cluster.  Anyway someone could make this into a script to run accross all datastores in a Virtual Center?

find /vmfs/volumes/ -name *0000*.* -print

Reply
0 Kudos