ESXi4.0: Can't consolidate snapshot files

[Stangobien]

Hi,

I'm having a problem with a virtual machine after i was testing GhettoVCB backup script. This script uses snapshotting. Something went wrong during the backup.

Now i have 4 :smileyalert: 0000-*.vmdk snapshot files on my Datatore. And the datastore is low on free space as it is, even more so with these snapshot files.

I have attached a screenshot from the Datastore browser showing the files.

When i go to snapshotmanager i see no snapshots listed. When i create a new "TEST" snapshot and then choose delete all, the old snapshot files still remain.

I'm using ESXi4.0 free edition. What can i do to solve this mess? Any help kindly appreciated.

[piaroa]

Please post the .vmx file of tha virtual machine.

If this post has been helpful/solved your issue, please mark the thread and award points as you see fit. Thanks!

[Stangobien]

I'm really concerned as it seems my Datastore is filling up rapidly, and at the rate it's going it will be full within 30 minutes.

This is a major problem, since this is a production VM.

[Stangobien]

attached is the VMX file (in text form).

[Stangobien]

Okay, so things have gone from bad to worse. After messing around myself the VM powerd off, and when restarted it onyl had data from yesterday. It seems some of the snapshot files are not active anymore.

Can i somehow apply these files? Please help!

[piaroa]

I think your VM should be using the 00004.vmdk file.

If this post has been helpful/solved your issue, please mark the thread and award points as you see fit. Thanks!

[Stangobien]

I came to the same conclusion.

But the machines has booted with the 00001 file as disk in the vmx. I can shut it down and edit the vmx to point to the 0004 file. But will this work?

I mean now that the VM booted the 00001 file it has probably made changes to it, will that break the chain of snapshot files? I check the files 0004 0003 0002, they still point correclty to each other.

[Stangobien]

I have added an extent to the datastore so that it has now 100GB free space. This was enough to consolidate all snapshots, Icreated 1 new and choose delete all. It still didn't show the others in the manager but it did consolidate all of them. Because of the couple minutes i booted the VM with a snapshot in the middle of the chain i got some data corruption (windows registry, some ini files). I have yet to test the mysql database, crossing my fingers.

I will look up how to shrink or clone the VM so that i can remove the extent from the datastore.

[a_p_]

You should consider to update the host to Update 2 or newer. VMware changed the way snapshots are consolidated with Update 2. Prior to U2 snapshots were consolidated from bottom to top

snap4 --> snap3, snap3 --> snap2, snap 2 --> snap1, snap1 --> base

which needs a lot of additional disk space, especially with multiple snapshots

(you can find an animated gif which describes this here )

with U2 this has changed to

snap1 --> base, snap2 --> base, snap3 --> base, snap4 --> base

This way - if you use thick provisioned disks - you will need just some additional disk space if you consolidate the snapshots with the VM powered on and you will need no additional disk space with the VM powered off.

I will look up how to shrink or clone the VM so that i can remove the extent from the datastore.

Well, here is no way to remove an extent from a datastore. You will have to create a new datastore and migrate the VMs over to this one.

André

[Stangobien]

I know there is no way to remove the extent, other then completely recreating the datastore, which i will have to do.

But to move the VM to another datastore i need to shrink some VM's on that other datastore so i have room to move this VM there.

Is there an easy way to shrink a VM with thick VDMK? Please don't say converter as this requires me to have free space for a copy and takes hours to complete.I woulk shrink the partition size in windows, and then i would like to shrink the VMDK. Any possibilities?

PS: Thanks for the heads up about the update. I will try to apply this, but will need maintenance mode i guess.

[a_p_]

Is there an easy way to shrink a VM with thick VDMK?

The only way I can think of to change the size of thick provisioned disks is the .... (the "...." stands for "Converter", however since you asked not to say that, I used "...." )

André

[Stangobien]

funny but sad