vmdk was not found

[FL6]

Can't find this file.

I attached a screenshot of the directory, seems like 1 file is missing, can this be rebuilt?

This is the error.

State
Failed - File Server2019-000001.vmdk was not found

Errors
VMware ESX cannot find the virtual disk "Server2019-000001.vmdk". Verify the path is valid and try again.

[a_p_]

Please select "Server2019.vmdk" and start to download it. This will result in two downloads, one for a small "Server2019.vmdk" file, and a "Server2019-flat.vmdk". You can cancel the flat file download, as we don't need this file.

Once downloaded, compress/zip the "Server2019.vmdk", and attach the .zip archive to your next reply.

André

[FL6]

Here it is.

[a_p_]

The attached archive contains the 2 required .vmdk file (1 modified, 1 new).

Steps to take:

1. delete the 2 "...-ctk.vmdk" files (used for Changed Block Tracking)
2. delete the .vmsd file
3. upload the two .vmdk descriptor files from the attached .zip archive
4. create an additional snapshot before powering on the VM (to avoid modifications to the current files in case something doesn't work as expected)

If the VM works as expected, consider running "Delete All" from the Snapshot Manager to consolidate/merge all snapshots.

André

[FL6]

So far this is fantastic, it's booting but now I'm getting a out of disk space message. 92% Full.

Not sure how to clear up space. 

edit: oh wait, it says to consolidate like you said, lol. I'll try that first.

[FL6]

According to my screenshot do I just click on delete all? Do i have to highlight or select "you are here" or anything on the left hand side?

[a_p_]

Delete All will consolidate all snapshots, regardless of whether they show up in the Snapshot Manager.

However, with 92% disk usage, it's risky to simply start the consolidation. Depending on the configuration you could run out of disk space, and things could become even worse.

To find out if it is save to delete the snapshots, please run ls -lisa from the ESXi host's command line to list the files in the VM's folder. This command will not only show the virtual disk's provisioned space, but also the current physical disk usage. To get the free disk space, also run the df command. Please post the results of both commands as plain text (not as a screenshot) if possible.

To access the hosts CLI remotely, enable the SSH service on the host, and use e.g. putty to connect to it. The VM's folder is /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Server2019

André

[FL6]

I attached a txt file of the output of those commands

[a_p_]

According to:

>>> 230686724 629145600 -rw------- 1 644245094400 May 12 17:12 Server2019-flat.vmdk

the VM has a thick provisioned virtual disk. In this case the bas virtual disk ( the -flat.vmdk) will not grow with consolidating the snapshot, i.e. you can proceed with running "Delete All".

André

[FL6]

Will that free up space?

Patreon?

[a_p_]

According to the file listing that you provided it, you've already consolidated snapshot 000001.
Consolidating snapshot 000002 will merge the data from the sesparse file into the already fully provisioned flat file, and then delete the sesparse file.

Snapshot files in VMware products store data blocks that are modified after creating the snapshot. The longer a snapshot exists, the more it will grow (up to the provisioned disk size + some metadata).

André

[BigMike23]

It will free up space