[AusNOG] VMWare Snapshot / Delta VMDK removal

Mon Nov 20 21:13:33 EST 2017

I noticed he was talking Veeam - I've often seen a volume run out of space
while Veeam was trying to sync an off-site replica, and then the snapshots
get stuck.  Same if Veeam has crashed or network has dropped, while doing
the sync - the snapshot never gets cleaned up.

He also mentioned Swapfiles.  That reeks of someone not reserving memory
for the VM.  Would be worth checking that in the settings.  I know there
are valid reasons for over-committing ram on VM's compared to the
hypervisor's physical memory, but unless you know exactly what you're
doing, and are keeping a watch on it, it's easy to totally fill a datastore
and get yourself into trouble.  If you have the Physical ram to provide all
your VM's needs, it's better to just reserve that memory in the settings,
and then you don't need all that extra disk space.

On 20 November 2017 at 15:47, Robert Hudson <hudrob at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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-- 

Damien Gardner Jnr
VK2TDG. Dip EE. GradIEAust
rendrag at rendrag.net -  http://www.rendrag.net/
--
We rode on the winds of the rising storm,
 We ran to the sounds of thunder.
We danced among the lightning bolts,
 and tore the world asunder
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