Finding Unused VMs

[jfierberg]

Does anyone have suggestions on how to discover unused vms? I need to report to my manager on the status of our current virtual machines and included is an indication of how many vms are not being used. The vms are are all powered on still so that cannot be mentioned.

I am using the following service console command to show vmdks that have not been modified in over 30 days but wanted to know if there was something else I could be doing.

find /vmfs/volumes -name "*vmdk" -type f -mtime +30

[Troy_Clavell]

You may want to look at something like VKernel Optimization Pack

[AndreTheGiant]

RVTools could also help.

Andre

[jfierberg]

Thanks. Anyone know what a "possible zombie vmdk\file" is?

[jfierberg]

Thanks. Anyone know what a "possible zombie vmdk\file" is?

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

possible zombie's are .vmdk files that are in datastore inventory, but not registered to ESX(i)/vCenter inventory. Meaning they are not being used

[jfierberg]

Perfect, thanks for the answer. RVtools is pretty cool, however it does not seem capable of telling me which vms are unused. I will poke around.

[Troy_Clavell]

Perfect, thanks for the answer. RVtools is pretty cool, however it does not seem capable of telling me which vms are unused. I will poke around.

That's why I pointed out the Optimization Pack. Wastefinder, which is part of that pack, will give you exactly what you are looking for. However, it's not free.

[jfierberg]

I appreciate the tip. I will see if they have a 30-day demo and try it out. Thank you again.

[Rockape]

If you now use RVTools v3.1 and select the vHealth Tab you will get a list of possible Zombie vmdk files.

Hope that helps!!!

[AureusStone]

If you are using Windows you can use EventComb to search for VMs that have not been logged on to over a period of time.

May not be useful for web servers and infrastructure, but good for finding developer VMs that are not in use.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824209

And of course it is free.