Datastore confusion - VM Guest folders **bleep**show

[Deepseadata]

Hi there,

I'm a novice who's inherited a really messy storage and EXSi installation. I'm trying to identify folders and files (which are being backed up...lol) to delete and, more importantly, identify what folders my Guest is actually using. The VM's I see on the EXSi host in questions are DomainController_New, MYKA-SVR002 and MYKA-SVR003. Here's a snip of what (I believe) is the Qnap's hosting the files.

What the hell is all this crap?

[pcgeek2009]

So it almost looks like they took the disks of another VM in the same folder and mounted one of them to the current VM. Do you see the 4TB not only mounted, but in use inside the domain controller? If it is just mounted and not online or inuse, you may be able to create a new folder, remove it, and "move" any reference to "new" to that folder to try to clean this up. It does look like a big mess. Personally, being a domain controller, I would build a new server, promote it to a DC, and migrate the FSMO roles if this DC is hosting them. Then, decommission this mess. 

[NateNateNAte]

First off, love the subject title.  Well played.  

I agree with @pcgeek2009 that the best solution is to build a clean DC, promote, migrate rules, demote the old DC and decommission. It appears as if several domain controllers were built, just looking at the naming convention. It's not clear from your screenshots if those are still in use, but a quick look at your active DC should help resolve that investigation.

I would also recommend that documentation of the environment is key. As you're cleaning up this environment, document what got cleaned up, why, and where you might 'archive' or save the back-ups of the old for however long your data storage policy dictates (assuming you have a policy like that). Then going forward, have a logical diagram of the environment that someone is tasked to keep up to date, whether you do that using vmware or 3rd party tools is up to you, but that would be my added recommendation. 

[a_p_]

What I usually do to get an overview is to run RVTools, which not only shows what is in use, but also lists unused stuff.

André

[Deepseadata]

Yep,

There was total dataloss. Format of our main NAS and our backup NAS. They recovered the data of the EXSi host's VM's (which were also full of junk-failed VM's whi ch were carried into more new folders of new failed VM folders. When it finally sort of worked... they left and didn't tell anyone what they did. 

[Deepseadata]

Yeah. 3 VM's in use. One is DC AD, 002 is usually just a print server, 003 was VEEAM. 

I'm just setting up VEEAM (for the first time ever) using Youtube. I have nobody to talk to but you guys. The people who setup previous VEEAM are afraid of me because i ask difficult questions. I'm on a boat in the middle of nowhere 10hrs ahead of any friend that has a clue about VMware.

I had created a great network diagram and documents but it all got killed in the crash. I type and paste notes as I go through and clean up. I'll be documenting hard because I go on leave in 10 days. A new guy gets to take over and he doesn't know the network. Poor guy.

[Deepseadata]

Cool! This is why I'm here. Learning about resources you guys are using. Will do some reading about RTV tools right now.