Snapshots left on VMFS after VDR backup failed - how to merge/delete?

[iPhun]

These days some backups did not finish successfully and I had to force the VDR appliances down. Now there are still delta files since the snapshots could not be removed successfully. I merged the snapshots via Snapshot Manager (deleting the one called _datarecovery) but there are still some files on the VMFS.

Anyway, the base disks do not seem to have snapshots (vmware-cmd <> hassnapshots returns 0). Has anyone experienced the same issues? How do I get rid of the the snaps, as they fill up the data store?

This VM has a 20 GB disk configured, it consumes ~34 GB and I do not know how to remove the failed snaps for the backups:

# ls -lsah

total 34G

64K drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.1K Nov 20 15:49 .

1.0M drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 2.9K Nov 20 17:38 ..

3.7G -rw------- 1 root root 3.7G Jul 20 10:48 vm043.example.com-000001-delta.vmdk

64K -rw------- 1 root root 351 Nov 20 15:48 vm043.example.com-000001.vmdk

2.0M -rw------- 1 root root 1.3M Nov 20 15:49 vm043.example.com-000002-ctk.vmdk

9.8G -rw------- 1 root root 9.8G Nov 20 17:38 vm043.example.com-000002-delta.vmdk

64K -rw------- 1 root root 463 Nov 20 15:49 vm043.example.com-000002.vmdk

64K -rw-rr 1 root root 37 Nov 20 14:10 vm043.example.com-5f20edf3.hlog

64K -rw-rr 1 root root 13 Nov 20 14:30 vm043.example.com-aux.xml

21G -rw------- 1 root root 21G Jul 13 19:56 vm043.example.com-flat.vmdk

64K -rw------- 1 root root 8.5K Nov 20 14:11 vm043.example.com.nvram

64K -rw------- 1 root root 515 Nov 20 15:48 vm043.example.com.vmdk

64K -rw------- 1 root root 547 Nov 20 15:49 vm043.example.com.vmsd

64K -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.0K Nov 20 16:50 vm043.example.com.vmx

64K -rw------- 1 root root 275 Nov 20 16:50 vm043.example.com.vmxf

1.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 926K Nov 4 12:56 vmware-30.log

1.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 70K Nov 4 16:02 vmware-31.log

1.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 133K Nov 5 15:24 vmware-32.log

1.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 70K Nov 5 16:24 vmware-33.log

2.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 1.7M Nov 20 13:50 vmware-34.log

1.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 71K Nov 20 14:10 vmware-35.log

1.0M -rw-rr 1 root root 247K Nov 20 16:51 vmware.log

Any hints are very welcome...

[admin · Accepted solution]

Have you tried step listed in KB 1012383?

[AndreTheGiant]

Use snapshot manager and make a delete all snapshot.

But remember that you need free space on your VMFS datastore to consolidate the snap.

Andre

[iPhun]

Where are no snapshots visible in the vCenter Snapshot Manager after I deleted the sole "_datarecovery" Snapshot. Anyway, on the file system there are snap shots... somehow vSphere seems to have lost track of them.

[AndreTheGiant]

Create a new snapshot and then choose delete all.

Andre

[iPhun]

Hello azmir,

thanks for pointing me to KB 1012383. The first of a list of affected VMs seems to be merged now.

Best regards,

iPhun.