[AusNOG] VMWare Snapshot / Delta VMDK removal

[Robert Hudson]

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.

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.

On 20 Nov. 2017 1:08 pm, "Rory Jones" <rory.jones.au at gmail.com> wrote:

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.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

Kind regards,
Rory
------------------------------
*From:* AusNOG <ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net> on behalf of Daniel Watson
<dgwatson1988 at gmail.com>
*Sent:* Monday, November 20, 2017 8:03:19 AM
*To:* Burt Mascareigne
*Cc:* ausnog at lists.ausnog.net

*Subject:* Re: [AusNOG] VMWare Snapshot / Delta VMDK removal

Have a QNAP. So moved the pagefile’s to an ISCIS target. And then removed
all the Delta’s

Freed up 268gb which has allowed the Veeam backups to run

Daniel

Sent from my iPhone

> On 20 Nov 2017, at 8:09 am, Burt Mascareigne <Burt at stormnetwork.com.au>
wrote:
>
> I feel like you dodged a bullet there.
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Burt Mascareigne
> Mobile 0414 450 962   Office (02) 9965 5422
> Address Level 19, 1 O’Connell Street, Sydney NSW 2000
> Web http://www.stormnetwork.com.au
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net
<ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net>] On Behalf Of Daniel Watson
> Sent: Sunday, 19 November 2017 10:23 PM
> To: ausnog at lists.ausnog.net
> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] VMWare Snapshot / Delta VMDK removal
>
> Thanks to all those fantastic people who have responded
>
> I have powered off this particular VM for the time being. And have
recovered 35gb in swapfile
>
> 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
>
> Appreciate all the assistance. I’ll keep you posted how it goes tomorrow
>
> Daniel
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 19 Nov 2017, at 9:47 pm, Daniel Watson <dgwatson1988 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Sorry to bother the list but this is critical
>>
>> Wanted to know from others. If it is safe to remove a delta VMDK file
from a running vm?
>>
>> 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
>>
>> Any information would be appreciated
>>
>> Daniel
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
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