Space low on a datastore - safe to remove a snapshot?

[tachiau]

Hi,

Overnight a lot of data was placed into one of our VM's causing it to run out of space.

I have since removed it all but the actual datastore has not freed up any space.

The VM has an old snapshot on it that I am guessing may be problem.

The total snapshot file size is 60gb, and there is 13gb of free space on the datastore.

Is it safe to remove the snapshot?

edit - I should add its running version ESXi 4.1 and I am using thin provisioning.

Thanks

[abhilashhb]

Hi tachiau,

Welcome to the VMware Commmunity,

Yes deleting the snapshot will allow you to reclaim the datastore space.

Before doing anything, Refer this thread

https://communities.vmware.com/message/2204174

[tachiau]

I am concerned that because there is so little space, it will simple use up any remaining space when deleting the snapshot.

Or is my assumption incorrect?

Thanks

[abhilashhb]

Can you provide more info?

Whats the total space on the datastore? a Screenshot of all the files in this Particular VM"s folder? How many VM's are there in the datastore? Is expanding/extending datastore by adding additional space an option?

Do you need the data that is in the snapshot, do you want to discard it or commit it?

[tachiau]

Total data store size is 831gb

There are two other VM's taking 50Gb though/

At the moment additional storage is not an option.

Thanks

[continuum]

Hi
next time you post a screenshot please make sure to  resize the columns so that filenames are visible

worst case:  consolidating a snapshotshot into a thin provisioned basedisk :
new size of thin.vmdk = current size + size of snapshot (obviously that can never get larger than the nominal size

safe option: move one of the smaller VMs to another datastore or download it to your adminhost while doing the consolidation