Advice How to control Storage use in vSphere 6.5 Datacenter

[jpcarranza]

Hi

Currently we are facing an uncontrolled increase of Datacenter Storage due to the use of our VMs

The scenario is the following:

1. I create a VM (8GB RAM, 12vCPUs, 70GB HDD - Thin)
2. Once the VM is created, that use 68.44GB storage on the datacenter)
3. Then, we start running our pipelines in that VM and we see the storage used in Datcenter stars increasing without control (For example, after using that VM for 3 days, the Storage used in the Datacenter increases up to 150GB)

Anyone know if there is a configuration, tool or aproach to control / limit the Storage use per VM in the Datacenter?

[ashilkrishnan]

Hi @jpcarranza ,

VM will only utilize the space allocated to it. Are you running this VM on a snapshot ?

Please share some screenshots/references that explains these symptoms

[jpcarranza]

Hi @ashilkrishnan 

We are running a VM.

I attached a picture of the current issue

In the image, you can see a VM which was created with 70GB (Thin), but after some days of using that VM we saw the space used in the Datacenter is 101.27GB

Our current issue is, we don't know how to control/limit the use of the space in the DataCenter due to this VM

Regards

[ashilkrishnan]

@jpcarranza ,

Please confirm if the VM is running on a snapshot. If yes, consolidate them. To check the usage, please share following information:

1. Edit settings of this VM --> Share the name of hard disk VMDK

2. Browse the datastore --> This VMs folder and share the list of files and their sizes

[jpcarranza]

Hi @ashilkrishnan 

The VM is not using snapshots

Attached Disk name

[jpcarranza]

@ashilkrishnan this is the other information you ask me (It only enable me to upload one picture per message)

Attached VM Files

Regards

[paudieo]

What kind of storage array or solution are you using?

[jpcarranza]

Hi

@paudieo we are using VMFS6

Regards

[ashilkrishnan]

@jpcarranza 

What paudieo meant was the storage vendor, type(FC, iSCSI, NFS) or local storage.

Please connect directly to ESXi host UI and check the VM summary.

[paudieo]

it may simply be a display issue 

also you could if you wish

ssh to the host where the VM is running . 

change dir to the folder of the VM

cd /vmfs/volumes/<your-datastore-name>/<affected-vm-folder>/

and issue

du -sh *.vmdk

this should show the real size on the  VMFS volume

[jpcarranza]

Hi @ashilkrishnan 

I am not sure if this is the information @paudieo refers:

This is a cloud environment (Provider: MacStadium)

Storage Provider: IOFILTER provider

[jpcarranza]

@ashilkrishnan ESXi summary attached

[jpcarranza]

@ashilkrishnan VM Summary attached

[jpcarranza]

Hi @paudieo 

We already dicarded display issue

If you see in the sceenshot I upload (ESXI info) you can see the real value of the .vmdk file is bigger than the size specified in the VM (VM = 70GB, DS vmdk = 75GB)

As we understand this delta is due to the use of the VM.

The concern here is, As we understand if we free space in the HDD it is supposed to be reclaimed automatically from the DataCenter (due to it is a VMFS6) but looks like, we we free space, that space is not reclaimed

In this case, the HDD with 70GB it only used real 50GB, but we see in the DS 75GB

Anyway, if we clear the HDD (e.g. 30GB) the size in the DS remains the same 75GB

[jpcarranza]

@ashilkrishnan @paudieo I checked futher and I found the type is iscs

[paudieo]

With VMFS-6, space reclamation is now an automatic, but an asynchronous process. As implied its not instant as soon as you delete a file in the guest it will get reclaimed.

A few things to check, is your array capable of processing UMMAP cmds?
Is your VMFS-6 datastore configured for automatic UNMAP?
The next thing is, is your host(s) enabled to participate in automatic UNMAP?
Also from a guest perspective there are requirements on which guest can send UNMAP requests
The virtual disk must be thin-provisioned.
Virtual machine hardware must be of version 11 (ESXi 6.0) or later.
The guest operating system must be able to identify the virtual disk as thin.

Alot of this is covered in more detail at 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-B40D1420-26FD-4318... 

[jpcarranza]

Hi @paudieo 

Thanks a lot for your answer

I will check your suggestions, and I will be back with an update