Hey, hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
I recently took over an ESXi instance, and have run into space issues on the box.
Physical Server: HP Proliant DL380p Gen 8
OS: ESXi 6.5 U2 Sept 2018 – Last Pre-Gen9 custom image
License: VMware vSphere 6 Enterprise Plus
I have a datastore, which is 2.73TB in size, and is VMFS5. Thin Provisioning is supported.
All the VM's are Thin Provisioned, but ESXi is not reclaiming space from deleted VM's, deleted files on the VM's, or deleted Snapshots.
Checking the disk information:
[root@esxi01:~] esxcli storage core device list -d naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206
naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206
Display Name: Local HP Disk (naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206)
Has Settable Display Name: true
Size: 2861511
Device Type: Direct-Access
Multipath Plugin: NMP
Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206
Vendor: HP
Model: LOGICAL VOLUME
Revision: 5.42
SCSI Level: 5
Is Pseudo: false
Status: on
Is RDM Capable: true
Is Local: true
Is Removable: false
Is SSD: false
Is VVOL PE: false
Is Offline: false
Is Perennially Reserved: false
Queue Full Sample Size: 0
Queue Full Threshold: 0
Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
Attached Filters:
VAAI Status: unsupported
Other UIDs: vml.0200020000600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e02064c4f47494341
Is Shared Clusterwide: false
Is Local SAS Device: true
Is SAS: true
Is USB: false
Is Boot USB Device: false
Is Boot Device: false
Device Max Queue Depth: 1024
No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
Drive Type: unknown
RAID Level: unknown
Number of Physical Drives: unknown
Protection Enabled: false
PI Activated: false
PI Type: 0
PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
DIX Enabled: false
DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false
[root@esxi01:~] esxcli storage core device vaai status get -d naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206
naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206
VAAI Plugin Name:
ATS Status: unsupported
Clone Status: unsupported
Zero Status: unsupported
Delete Status: unsupported
And i've checked the related configurations in esxi
Key | Name | Value | Default | Overridden |
---|
DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit | Enable hardware accelerated VMFS data initialization (requires compliant hardware) | 1 | 1 | No |
DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove | Enable hardware accelerated VMFS data movement (requires compliant hardware) | 1 | 1 | No |
DataMover.MaxHeapSize | Maximum size of the heap in MB used for data movement | 64 | 64 | No |
VMFS3.HardwareAcceleratedLocking | Enable hardware accelerated VMFS locking (requires compliant hardware). Please see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2094604 before disabling this option | 1 | 1 | No |
Trying the manual unmap also doesn't work
[root@esxi01:~] vmkfstools -y /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/
Volume '/vmfs/volumes/datastore2/' spans device 'naa.600508b1001caf2ad46535555b3e0206:1' that does not support unmap.
Devices backing volume /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/ do not support UNMAP.
So really I'm at a loss on where the problem is. Is it the physical disks, or the LUN.
Is there any way to enable this unmap command without having to rebuild the entire datastore?
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks!
I have found lots of conflicting information online, some saying VMFS5 will support this, and some saying it does not.
I'm going out on a limb and say it doesn't.
I did find another workaround - but it's manual. A quick bash script will make it less tedious.
using vmkfstools -K (punchzero) on the VMDK files for the largest VM's will recover space on the datastore.
Moderator: Moved to vSphere Storage
I believe VAAI needs to be supported to use unmap
I have found lots of conflicting information online, some saying VMFS5 will support this, and some saying it does not.
I'm going out on a limb and say it doesn't.
I did find another workaround - but it's manual. A quick bash script will make it less tedious.
using vmkfstools -K (punchzero) on the VMDK files for the largest VM's will recover space on the datastore.
I've same problem but maybe VAAI support and so reclaim space it is possible only on SAN and NAS storage device and not for local attached storage.
in fact in my enviroment i'm able to reclaim space on my SAN attached to esxi, but no reclaim space on local storage attach on the same esxi.
MAYBE the problem is the local attached storage, that it is not support reclaim space???