Deleted Snapshot still have 000001.vmdk - need disk space

[pasupport]

Hi Community -

I'm in a bit of a bind.  I have an ESXi 4 host running a single Guest and I'm out of disk space on the datastore.  I had a snapshot that I deleted through snapshot manager but I still show a 000001.vmdk file when I browse the datastore.  The base VMDK is ~50 Gig and the 000001.vmdk is about 12 ~Gig and I only have a 65 Gig drive.  How I "merge" the snapshot with the original vmdk and how much space will that actually free up?  I only show about 42 gig of used space in total on the guest in it's current state.

Any help is appreciated.

thanks

[a_p_]

Sometimes the snapshot manager does not show all the snapshots due to different reasons.

Is the 000001.vmdk the only snapshot file you see in the datastore?

Was/is the base virtual disk (the 50GB disk) thick provisioned or thin provisioned?

Which product version and build number are you running? (ESXi 4.0 Update 2 or later?)

If the base disk is thick provisioned and there's only one snapshot present (or you are at least on ESXi 4.0 Update 2), I'd suggest you power off the VM (this will free up some disk space). Then open the snapshot manager, create a new snapshot and then run "Delete All" which will commit all snapshots.

André

[pasupport]

000001.vmdk is the only snapshot in the datastore, which is consistent as I only took one snapshot

The virtual disk was thick provisioned

I'm running 4.0.0 build 208167

Given my answers above sounds like your suggestion is in order.  I'll give that a try.

[a_p_]

Even though the build number you have belongs to Update 1, you may go ahead and commit the snapshots as described. The issues with build numbers below 4.0 Update 2 occur with multiple snapshots only.

André

[pasupport]

I went ahead as described and now I have two additional VMDK's (reference: http://screencast.com/t/YFRBHfuC) and no snapshots listed in Snapshot manager.  I'm now downloading update-from-esxi4.0-4.0_update03.zip for installation and will repeat the process.  Would that be the next step?

[malaysiavm]

I hope this is helpful for you.

http://malaysiavm.com/blog/manual-commit-snapshots-delta-file-to-vmdk-flat-file/

Craig

vExpert 2009 & 2010 Netapp NCIE, NCDA 8.0.1

Malaysia VMware Communities - http://www.malaysiavm.com

[pasupport]

I updated to build 385281 on the client and 398348 (update 3) on the host, adding another snapshot and selected delete all.  It removed the snapshot from snapshot manager and now I have (3) snapshot files -> http://screencast.com/t/uTvoHXTCWUM  and the VM is linked to 000003.vmdk

Not sure what to do next.  Searching the forums doesn't seem to turn up a definitive answer.

[continuum]

connect to that host with WinSCP and download all small vmdk-files that do NOT have delta or flat in the name.

Then create a zip archive with the 4 small vmdks + the vmx-file and the logs.

When we have that data we can help.

[pasupport]

Attached are the files you requested. I also added another HD and extended the existing datastore onto it.  I tried booting the VM and got an error message
"cannot open the disk argument list too long". I then created a another snapshot and went to delete all - snapshot vmdk's still exist and I now I get this error:http://screencast.com/t/Q4r6TBzklp1r

Please help

[continuum]

ok - I inspect the data in a few minutes.
Please dont change anything for now

[pasupport]

here's the vmx file

[pasupport]

one other thing I should note - datastore 1 was originally only on a SCSI drive.  I added a 230 GB IDE drive and extended onto that drive.

[continuum]

some files are missing in the archive - looks like you did not download the files with WinSCP or FastSCP ?

please check that you have

infosac.vmdk

infosac-000001.vmdk

infosac-000002.vmdk

infosac-000003.vmdk

infosac-000004.vmdk

infosac_1.vmdk

infosac_1-000001.vmdk

infosac_1-000002.vmdk

infosac_1-000003.vmdk

infosac_1-000004.vmdk

[pasupport]

here's the zip file again that contain:

infosac-000002.vmdk

infosac-000003.vmdk

infosac-000004.vmdk

infosac_1.vmdk

infosac_1-000001.vmdk

infosac_1-000002.vmdk

infosac_1-000003.vmdk

infosac-000001.vmdk is a 12 GIG file and part of how I got in the position I'm in.

There is no infosac_1-000004.vmdk

http://screencast.com/t/DrpjwtkD98

[pasupport]

I have a total of 3 drives, 2 SCSI drives that are separate datastores.  I then added an IDE drive to extend the main datastore of the VM.

http://screencast.com/t/sSWADPvyI

http://screencast.com/t/LPNF2eFrR0

[continuum]

do NOT use datastorebrowser - it does not allow you to download the files we need

If  you do not have SSH access enabled - do that now

[pasupport]

Thanks Ulli - I've activated SSH here's the view of the volumes http://screencast.com/t/LPNF2eFrR0 and the attached zip.  I still don't see infosac_1-000004.vmdk

[continuum]

you can also use a browser to http://esx-name
then you can download the requested files that way