External size of VM greatly excceds the HD inside the VM

[FatRat2000]

Hi, I have VM workstation running on Windows 2003 server 64bit (the Host). I am running a Windows 2003 server 32bit in a VM (My Server, Sagarmatha). My Server has 40GB of HD available to it. When I do a 'dir' on the Host, it is using 92.5GB!! Now I can fully understand that the space for a 40GB (preallocated) VM might take up 45GB or more, but I'm choking on 92.5GB! (My problem lies in backing it up.)

Anyway, a directory listing looks like this....

23/05/2009 11:27 PM <DIR> .

23/05/2009 11:27 PM <DIR> ..

03/09/2008 03:55 PM <DIR> 564d07a0-6fd4-a281-46de-d9fb01fb279f.vmem.lck

22/05/2009 08:36 PM <DIR> 564dc69f-1751-35ab-ab84-ddf418f653cb.vmem.lck

22/05/2009 08:36 PM <DIR> Sagarmatha-000001.vmdk.lck

22/05/2009 08:36 PM <DIR> Sagarmatha-000002.vmdk.lck

22/05/2009 08:36 PM <DIR> Sagarmatha.vmdk.lck

22/05/2009 04:12 PM <DIR> Sagarmatha.vmx.lck

14/11/2007 04:01 PM 42,949,672,960 Sagarmatha-flat.vmdk

22/05/2009 08:37 PM 36,399,546,368 Sagarmatha-000002.vmdk

09/09/2008 04:29 PM 13,518,700,544 Sagarmatha-000001.vmdk

19/08/2008 10:32 AM 2,147,483,648 564d07a0-6fd4-a281-46de-d9fb01fb279f.vmem

22/05/2009 08:36 PM 2,147,483,648 564dc69f-1751-35ab-ab84-ddf418f653cb.vmem

14/11/2007 04:08 PM 2,147,483,648 Sagarmatha-Snapshot1.vmem

14/11/2007 04:08 PM 17,950,284 Sagarmatha-Snapshot1.vmsn

22/05/2009 05:24 PM 117,797 vmware-0.log

04/05/2009 11:58 PM 93,829 vmware-2.log

05/05/2009 12:05 AM 88,353 vmware-1.log

22/05/2009 08:36 PM 58,738 vmware.log

08/04/2008 12:43 AM 18,454 Sagarmatha-Snapshot2.vmsn

22/05/2009 05:24 PM 8,684 Sagarmatha.nvram

22/05/2009 08:36 PM 1,906 Sagarmatha.vmx

08/04/2008 12:43 AM 1,152 Sagarmatha.vmsd

14/11/2007 03:18 PM 380 Sagarmatha.vmdk

29/10/2007 11:03 PM 291 Sagarmatha.vmxf

I accept that some HD is going to be consumed running a 40GB VM, but why are some of the last used dates over a year old (eg Sargarmatha-flat.vmdk)?

What can I delete without harming my VM? I'm happy to get rid of the snapshots too, if that'd make much difference. What's the Sagarmatha-000001 and -000002 for?

I appreciate people looking at this for me, and I look forward to your responses.

Tim

[norregaard · Accepted solution]

Hi, it's your snapshots that are taking up the space. If you commit the snapshots, that will free up space, so you come down to around 40 GB (put be patient, it can take a loong time to commit/delete snapshots of that size...). It is not best practice to leave snapshots for too long (in my company the general policy is around a week) - one of the reasons is exactly the problem that you have encountered, that is is difficult to control disk consumption.

22/05/2009 08:37 PM 36,399,546,368 Sagarmatha-000002.vmdk

09/09/2008 04:29 PM 13,518,700,544 Sagarmatha-000001.vmdk

Follow this link to get an explanation of how snaphots work:

/jakob

[FatRat2000]

Thankyou very much, that explains it. Now, it says you can't delete a snapshot that was used to create a clone. How can I tell what clones were created? (So I know if I can delete the locked snapshot?)

Kind Regards

Tim

[norregaard]

Can you attach the exact error message?

If you have trouble comitting a snapshot, you can try one of two things:

1. Take a new snapshot of the VM and then commit/delete all of the snapshots after.

2. Clone the VM to a new VM, this will commit all snapshots in the process.

[FatRat2000]

No, no, no, I've led you astray. There is no error message. I followed your link, and learnt about snapshots. I opened the snapshot manager, and pressed the help button. One of my snapshots is locked, and so I read about that. I must have cloned that snapshot last year, but I can't remember to which VM. I have one VM that I cannot afford to stuff up (it is in production) so what I'm hoping you can do for me is tell me how to find out which VMs are based on what snapshot.

(As you may have guessed, I am a complete dunce when it comes to VMware. It is a tribute to the programmers that someone as non-technical as me can still drive it (albeit over a cliff). )

So, to recap. My Snapshot Manager looks like this...

|Sagarm|----> | Snapshot for|-----> |You are|

| matha |-----> | Sagarmatha|----->| here |

The middle one has a lock icon, indicating that I have cloned that at some stage. But cloned it to what? Have I subsequently deleted the clone? Is there a way to tell if a VM is a clone of another VM? The help says that if I delete a locked Snapshot, then any clones based on that Snapshot will "no longer operate".

I really appreciate your assistance here.

Thankyou again

Tim

[norregaard]

Ah ok. This means that you have made a linked clone from this VM (if you had made a full clone, no snapshot is taken). This snapshot cannot be deleted as the linked clone is dependent on this snapshot.

The easiest way to spot at linked clone is to look in Workstation in the sidebar (press F9 if not visible). Here the linked clones will have a slightly different icon from the regular VM's (kinda the VM logo within the VM logo....). Another way is to browse through the folder where you have placed the VMs. A linked clone's .vmdk file will have the naming: 'servername-cl1.vmdk'.

[FatRat2000]

Thankyou so much, you have helped me resolve my issue and more. Thank goodness for forums, and people like you.

Kind Regards

Tim