<div dir="auto">VMs only have a snapshot when something had told VMware (ESXi or vCenter, which tells ESXi) to create a snapshot. They only have large snapshots or chains of snapshots if those snapshots aren't being cleaned up.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Snapshots in this case are completely independent of the guest OS, and have nothing to do with where files within those guest OSs may be being written to within the guest OS fike system.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 20 Nov. 2017 1:08 pm, "Rory Jones" <<a href="mailto:rory.jones.au@gmail.com">rory.jones.au@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div style="direction:ltr">As others have said, I wouldn’t go messing around with those VMware files. You have a very high chance of borking something. Instead, get to the source of the problem. Find out *why* your VMs have a sudden appetite for data. Unfortunately
I can’t speak for Linux, but on the off chance the suspect VMs are running Windows, there’s an awesome little tool called WinDirStat. For the record, for Mac the equivalent is Disk Inventory X. Run these tools, or the equivalent for your OS. It’ll give you
a pretty picture like you’ve just broken Tetris of the contents of the drive. Go for the big blocks first. Find out what they are. Diagnose from there.</div>
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<div style="direction:ltr">Hope this helps someone in the future.</div>
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<div style="direction:ltr">Kind regards,</div>
<div style="direction:ltr">Rory</div>
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<div id="m_3737756761494666065x_divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> AusNOG <<a href="mailto:ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net" target="_blank">ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.<wbr>net</a>> on behalf of Daniel Watson <<a href="mailto:dgwatson1988@gmail.com" target="_blank">dgwatson1988@gmail.com</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, November 20, 2017 8:03:19 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Burt Mascareigne<br>
<b>Cc:</b> <a href="mailto:ausnog@lists.ausnog.net" target="_blank">ausnog@lists.ausnog.net</a><div class="elided-text"><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [AusNOG] VMWare Snapshot / Delta VMDK removal</div></font>
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<div class="m_3737756761494666065PlainText">Have a QNAP. So moved the pagefile’s to an ISCIS target. And then removed all the Delta’s<br>
<br>
Freed up 268gb which has allowed the Veeam backups to run<br>
<br>
Daniel<br>
<br>
Sent from my iPhone<br>
<br>
> On 20 Nov 2017, at 8:09 am, Burt Mascareigne <<a href="mailto:Burt@stormnetwork.com.au" target="_blank">Burt@stormnetwork.com.au</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> I feel like you dodged a bullet there.<br>
> <br>
> If you were not able to shut it down, then get a NAS or some device and clone to it at least that will give you a slimmed down clean version.
<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> Regards,<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> Burt Mascareigne<br>
> Mobile 0414 450 962 Office (02) 9965 5422<br>
> Address Level 19, 1 O’Connell Street, Sydney NSW 2000<br>
> Web <a href="http://www.stormnetwork.com.au" target="_blank">http://www.stormnetwork.com.au</a><br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> -----Original Message-----<br>
> From: AusNOG [<a href="mailto:ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net" target="_blank">mailto:ausnog-bounces@lists.<wbr>ausnog.net</a>] On Behalf Of Daniel Watson<br>
> Sent: Sunday, 19 November 2017 10:23 PM<br>
> To: <a href="mailto:ausnog@lists.ausnog.net" target="_blank">ausnog@lists.ausnog.net</a><br>
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] VMWare Snapshot / Delta VMDK removal<br>
> <br>
> Thanks to all those fantastic people who have responded<br>
> <br>
> I have powered off this particular VM for the time being. And have recovered 35gb in swapfile<br>
> <br>
> I have taken a new successful snapshot. Which then allowed me to delete “all” snapshots. Including those old delta files. This will take a few hours to complete. But then should give me back 100gb of space<br>
> <br>
> Appreciate all the assistance. I’ll keep you posted how it goes tomorrow<br>
> <br>
> Daniel<br>
> <br>
> Sent from my iPhone<br>
> <br>
>> On 19 Nov 2017, at 9:47 pm, Daniel Watson <<a href="mailto:dgwatson1988@gmail.com" target="_blank">dgwatson1988@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> <br>
>> Sorry to bother the list but this is critical<br>
>> <br>
>> Wanted to know from others. If it is safe to remove a delta VMDK file from a running vm?<br>
>> <br>
>> A server I am now looking after is running out of space like no tomorrow. And there are 3 delta VMDK ‘s taking up 80gb of space<br>
>> <br>
>> Any information would be appreciated<br>
>> <br>
>> Daniel<br>
>> <br>
>> Sent from my iPhone<br>
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