Hello,
We have a VMWare Vsphere environment 5.5V. Recently I have observed that for one of the Virtual Machines , there are multiple snapshots lying around in its directory.
This could be done from old admins. I am no expert in VMWare hence I would like to ask what can I do in order to remove those snapshots. I read some docs and it says its not a good
policy to retain snapshots for a longer time. But I also happen to read some posts where the process snapshot deletion got stuck and created problems. Which I certainly in any case avoid as this is the important server. And importantly we do not have any VM Backup policy in place so far.
Kindly give some hints/suggestions in this case.
Thanx.
Regards,
Admin
First of all, you must back up your VMs, especially VMs that have had very old snapshots. Second, try to delete the snapshots through the vSphere client (or web client). If it doesn't succeed, you may need to try other methods and determine why it's failing, but start there. Backup VM, then remove snapshots.
I have another post open , in which I am trying to find backup option available if one does not have proper licenses.
If I may start with Vsphere client to delete the snapshots. What is the correct procedure. Should I directly delete all the snapshots in place?
Go to the VM in question and delete all snapshots from the client. Do not attempt to manually remove any snapshot files from the datastore browser view.
Ok and it should take care of all the syncing between latest snapshot copy and original disk I believe.
If you delete all, yes, and not revert. Again, I recommend you have a full image backup of this VM before proceeding.
I think you should start with identifying which vmdk (delta or flat) the virtual machine is mapped to.
If its delta file you can run the command (mentioned below) where "vmdk name" is the disk file name identified mapped to the virtual machine
vmkfstools -q <vmdk name> -v10
and
vmkfstools -e <vmdk name>
This will help you narrow down if there are any left over snapshot which are not in snapshot chain and can safely be removed. if number of snapshot are not more then 32 you can remove it from
vSphere client or web client. Otherwise a more complex approach is required where batch or 30 snapshot are consolidated at a time.
If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider the use of the Correct or Helpful to award points.
Best Regards,
Deepak Koshal
CNE|CLA|CWMA|VCP4|VCP5|CCAH
Thanks for your reply.
I think you should start with identifying which vmdk (delta or flat) the virtual machine is mapped to.
How do I do it ? How can one identify which VMDK , the VM is mapped to.
Open Edit setting of the virtual machine and select the virtual disk on the left hand side and check the file name of the top right hand side.
vmdk of the delta file will have multiple 0's included in the file name.
If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider the use of the Correct or Helpful to award points.
Best Regards,
Deepak Koshal
CNE|CLA|CWMA|VCP4|VCP5|CCAH
Whether it is safe to delete snapshots, mainly depends on the free disk space on the datastore, and whether the VM's virtual disks are thin, or thick provisioned.
In order to be able to help, please let me know how much free disk space you currently have on the datastore, and post a complete list of files in the VM's folder, i.e. the output of ls -lisa from the command line. If you are not familiar with using the command line, you may alternatively provide a screenshot of the Datastore Browser, which shows all files including sizes, time stamps, ...
André
Yes you can delete all. Just that Your VM will remain in current state. Also you can check all list of snapshot and present state where it is. If you want to delete particular snapshot you should be careful if you have nested snapshots.
Thanks Andre for your response. As requested please find below the information,
1. The virtual disks (2) are thin provisioned each 100 GB.
apacheserver/apacheserver-000011.vmdk
apacheserver/apacheserver_1-000005.vmdk
2. Free space : ( The VMs Datastore is created on a NFS Share and has enough free space.)
~ # df -k
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
NFS 3486515200 451416684 3035098516 13% /vmfs/volumes/Remoteshare
3. Contents of VM :-
/vmfs/volumes/apacheserver # ls -lisa
total 117149308
19383 8 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8192 Aug 29 06:54 .
64 4 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Sep 20 06:39 ..
31364 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-0025000000000000
29150 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-0225000000000000
31363 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-382c000000000000
29149 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-3a2c000000000000
29151 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-6117000000000000
31360 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-7a7a000000000000
31368 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-7b65000000000000
31372 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-7c7a000000000000
31365 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-8e50000000000000
30096 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-8e75000000000000
30098 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-9175000000000000
30104 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-9775000000000000
31362 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-b93b000000000000
31371 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-ba4b000000000000
29148 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-bb3b000000000000
31370 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-bd4b000000000000
31369 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-bf4b000000000000
31367 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-c74b000000000000
31366 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-cb4b000000000000
31361 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-da6d000000000000
31373 4 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 84 Nov 22 09:08 .lck-dc6d000000000000
19389 2773324 -rw------- 1 root root 2835558400 Dec 22 2015 apacheserver-000001-delta.vmdk
19390 4 -rw------- 1 root root 318 Dec 17 2015 apacheserver-000001.vmdk
19391 1305920 -rw------- 1 root root 1342386176 Feb 8 2016 apacheserver-000002-delta.vmdk
19393 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Dec 22 2015 apacheserver-000002.vmdk
25979 370196 -rw------- 1 root root 386084864 Feb 12 2016 apacheserver-000003-delta.vmdk
25980 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Feb 8 2016 apacheserver-000003.vmdk
19399 1878784 -rw------- 1 root root 1929588736 Feb 19 2016 apacheserver-000004-delta.vmdk
19400 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Feb 12 2016 apacheserver-000004.vmdk
19403 3274756 -rw------- 1 root root 3355652096 Mar 2 2016 apacheserver-000005-delta.vmdk
30093 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Feb 19 2016 apacheserver-000005.vmdk
20622 2928180 -rw------- 1 root root 3003330560 Mar 15 2016 apacheserver-000006-delta.vmdk
20623 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Mar 2 2016 apacheserver-000006.vmdk
9472 7434472 -rw------- 1 root root 7583510528 Apr 22 2016 apacheserver-000007-delta.vmdk
9473 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Mar 15 2016 apacheserver-000007.vmdk
11320 10961996 -rw------- 1 root root 11190611968 Oct 27 2016 apacheserver-000008-delta.vmdk
11321 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Apr 22 2016 apacheserver-000008.vmdk
15289 11025452 -rw------- 1 root root 11257720832 Jun 12 07:04 apacheserver-000009-delta.vmdk
15290 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Oct 27 2016 apacheserver-000009.vmdk
28122 9300208 -rw------- 1 root root 9496113152 Aug 29 06:54 apacheserver-000010-delta.vmdk
28123 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Jun 12 07:04 apacheserver-000010.vmdk
31354 9695524 -rw------- 1 root root 9898766336 Nov 22 09:08 apacheserver-000011-delta.vmdk
31355 4 -rw------- 1 root root 325 Aug 29 06:54 apacheserver-000011.vmdk
19388 36 -rw------- 1 root root 32026 Dec 17 2015 apacheserver-Snapshot1.vmsn
28120 8427524 -rw------- 1 root root 8595954083 Jun 12 07:13 apacheserver-Snapshot10.vmsn
31353 8427524 -rw------- 1 root root 8595952786 Aug 29 07:04 apacheserver-Snapshot11.vmsn
19385 36 -rw------- 1 root root 32032 Dec 22 2015 apacheserver-Snapshot2.vmsn
25977 36 -rw------- 1 root root 32032 Feb 8 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot3.vmsn
19398 36 -rw------- 1 root root 32032 Feb 12 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot4.vmsn
19392 36 -rw------- 1 root root 32033 Feb 19 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot5.vmsn
19395 8427524 -rw------- 1 root root 8595954013 Mar 2 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot6.vmsn
9471 8427128 -rw------- 1 root root 8595549378 Mar 15 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot7.vmsn
11319 8427128 -rw------- 1 root root 8595549378 Apr 22 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot8.vmsn
15288 8427524 -rw------- 1 root root 8595954079 Oct 27 2016 apacheserver-Snapshot9.vmsn
30103 0 -rw------- 1 root root 8589934592 Feb 19 2016 apacheserver-fcb13ccc.vswp
19386 5633504 -rw------- 1 root root 107374182400 Dec 17 2015 apacheserver-flat.vmdk
19396 12 -rw------- 1 root root 8684 Nov 22 09:01 apacheserver.nvram
19387 4 -rw------- 1 root root 522 Dec 17 2015 apacheserver.vmdk
31359 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4714 Aug 29 06:54 apacheserver.vmsd
31358 4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3504 Aug 29 06:54 apacheserver.vmx
30097 0 -rw------- 1 root root 0 Feb 19 2016 apacheserver.vmx.lck
19384 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3433 Dec 17 2015 apacheserver.vmxf
9474 208 -rw------- 1 root root 208896 Mar 15 2016 apacheserver_1-000001-delta.vmdk
9475 4 -rw------- 1 root root 322 Mar 15 2016 apacheserver_1-000001.vmdk
11322 208 -rw------- 1 root root 208896 Apr 22 2016 apacheserver_1-000002-delta.vmdk
11323 4 -rw------- 1 root root 329 Apr 22 2016 apacheserver_1-000002.vmdk
15291 208 -rw------- 1 root root 208896 Oct 27 2016 apacheserver_1-000003-delta.vmdk
15292 4 -rw------- 1 root root 329 Oct 27 2016 apacheserver_1-000003.vmdk
28124 208 -rw------- 1 root root 208896 Jun 12 07:04 apacheserver_1-000004-delta.vmdk
28125 4 -rw------- 1 root root 329 Jun 12 07:04 apacheserver_1-000004.vmdk
31356 208 -rw------- 1 root root 208896 Aug 29 06:54 apacheserver_1-000005-delta.vmdk
31357 4 -rw------- 1 root root 329 Aug 29 06:54 apacheserver_1-000005.vmdk
5985 0 -rw------- 1 root root 107374182400 Mar 9 2016 apacheserver_1-flat.vmdk
5986 4 -rw------- 1 root root 498 Mar 9 2016 apacheserver_1.vmdk
19397 152 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 151364 Dec 17 2015 vmware-3.log
19401 156 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153498 Dec 22 2015 vmware-4.log
20224 156 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153824 Feb 8 2016 vmware-5.log
25987 156 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153712 Feb 12 2016 vmware-6.log
31066 156 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153550 Feb 19 2016 vmware-7.log
30101 156 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 154154 Feb 19 2016 vmware-8.log
30102 292 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 293156 Oct 17 09:25 vmware.log
30094 0 -rw------- 1 root root 117440512 Feb 19 2016 vmx-apacheserver-4239473868-1.vswp
The snapshots that one sees , have been taken randomly by admins.
Please let me know if you require anymore information.
Thanks.
From what I can see, the VM's secondary virtual disk dosn't contain much data, so it's actually only the first virtual disk which will require (temporary) additional disk space. Depending on the data in the delta files, space requirements could be up to the virtual disk's provisioned size minus the flat file's size (second column in kB), but I guess it'll be much less. Anyway, with ~3TB free disk space you're safe from this perspective. Depending on the storage performance, "Delete All" may take some time, so please be patient.
Although I don't expect issues, you may still consider daphnissov's recommendation regarding a current backup.
André
In addition, You may also find this helpful to monitor snapshot removal progress if it takes really long time.
https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007566
Snapshot removal task stops at 99% in ESXi/ESX (1007566)
Best Regards,
Deepak Koshal
CNE|CLA|CWMA|VCP4|VCP5|CCAH