VDP failing claiming not enough space....I don't believe it

[handsy]

2016-02-02T20:00:16.719-01:00 avvcbimage Info <14625>: WorkOrder Disk Info:

  Prior Disk '2000': file(base):'[wb_prod_ql01os] WB Prod QL01/WB Prod QL01.vmdk', backItUp=1

               snapshot file:'[wb_prod_ql01os] WB Prod QL01/WB Prod QL01.vmdk'

               prior size(KB):0, current size(KB):57671680, match=0

               prior change block ID:''

               Datastore:'wb_prod_ql01os' Directly Accessible=1

  Prior Disk '2016': file(base):'[wb_prod_shard01] WB Prod QL01/WB Prod QL01.vmdk', backItUp=0

               snapshot file:'[wb_prod_shard01] WB Prod QL01/WB Prod QL01.vmdk'

               prior size(KB):0, current size(KB):1572864000, match=0

               prior change block ID:''

               Datastore:'wb_prod_shard01' Directly Accessible=1

.

SNIP

.

2016-02-02T20:00:20.265-01:00 avvcbimage Info <19704>: DataStore Storage Info:wb_prod_ql01os capacity=90999619584    free=30713839616

2016-02-02T20:00:20.265-01:00 avvcbimage Info <19716>: DS Capacity=90999619584    FreeSpace=30713839616    / HD committed=59255284393    unCommitted=594            un

Shared=59055800320

2016-02-02T20:00:20.289-01:00 avvcbimage Info <19704>: DataStore Storage Info:wb_prod_shard01 capacity=1675037245440  free=63387467776

2016-02-02T20:00:20.289-01:00 avvcbimage Info <19716>: DS Capacity=1675037245440  FreeSpace=63387467776    / HD committed=1610612736000  unCommitted=597            un

Shared=1610612736000

2016-02-02T20:00:20.290-01:00 avvcbimage Info <19717>: DS(wb_prod_shard01) does not have enough free space (63387467776   ) for disks used (80530636800).

2016-02-02T20:00:20.290-01:00 avvcbimage Error <19661>: Datastore does not have enough free space for snapshot

I've pasted prudent entries from my VDP appliance log file above.

Basically I am backing up a single disk on a 7-disk VM. You can see in the first log entries above (before the SNIP) that disk 'wb_prod_ql01os' is marked for Backup (backItUp=1), then the next disk, 'wb_prod_shard01' is not marked for backup (backItUp=0).

We then go down the logs (below the SNIP above) and see that VDP has failed due to 'Datastore does not have enough free space for snapshot', but it's pointing at 'wb_prod_shard01' as the culprit! That disk is not marked for backup so why on earth is it causing VDP to fail??

Any help hugely appreciated

[handsy]

Well I found this in the VDP documentation:

"

Limitation

To perform a backup of a single VMDK on the virtual machine that includes multiple VMDKs, the datastore

must have enough space for snapshots of all of the VMDKs on the virtual machine. Even though the backup

job is meant to back up a single VMDK, the backup process performs a snapshot of all of the VMDKs on the

virtual machine. This behavior is a limitation in VMware.

"

So it looks like to backup a single disk you must have enough space for snapshots on the other drives! This makes no sense to me whatsoever.

If VMware are reading this, please can you comment?

Thanks

[RyanJMN]

VDP will not backup when there is less than 5% free space on any datastore associated with VM being backed up.  When a snapshot is created by VDP all VMDKs get a snapshot regardless of if they are being backed up.  Are you able to expand the datastore or move VMDKs around?

All backup software using VMware API for Data Protection work the same way when it comes to snapshots.  Although some other backup software make it easy to disable the check which might be alright if you change the disks you don't want backed up to dependent.  Even if this was an option with VDP I would still recommend increasing free space.