Snapshot consolidation is useful when snapshot disks fail to compact after a Delete or Delete all operation or if the disk did not consolidate. This might happen, for example, if you delete a snapshot but its associated disk does not commit back to the base disk.The Needs Consolidation column in the vSphere Client shows the virtual machines that need to be consolidated and the virtual machine's Summary tab shows a Configuration Issues consolidation message if the virtual machine needs to be consolidated. If you see errors for failed conditions, such as running out of disk space, correct them and run the consolidation task.
I have a virtual machine showing a 'Virtual machine Consolidation Needed status' alarm. From what I have read on-line, this can happen if a snapshot file exists and is not recognized by Snapshot Manager, which is not the case here. I have checked Snapshot Manager and no snapshots exist, and I've checked the datastore, and no snapshot files exist. Should I just acknowledge the alarm, or should I consolidate? In my mind, if there's no snapshot file, there's no point in running the consolidation. It might simply error-out, or tell me there are no snapshots.
I have been using VBR 7 Enterprise Plus to replicate VMs and from time to time I am getting this on my source VMs 'virtual machine disks consolidation is needed' All our snapshots are triggered by VBR only. This is ESXi 5.1U1 hosts running Vmware VSA (2 nodes cluster).
I wanted some expert opinions before I take any action, Thanks. There are two VMDK files in the datastore. The first is.VMDK, which is the size of the only disk the server has (35 GB). The other VMDK is -000002.VMDK, which is around 7 GB, which looks like a delta file to me. Snapshot Manager doesn't show any snapshots. The owner of the VM deleted the only snapshot a couple of weeks ago, so I would have expected the delta file to have been consolidated by the system, and then to disappear.
We have backups. I might just ask the owner of the VM if he would like to consolidate, or simply to acknowledge and clear the alarm.
But that won't make the -000002.VMDK go away. Thoughts?. Like Show 0 Likes.
A yellow flag on the VM's icon and a triggered alarm.There are two VMDK files in the datastore. The first is.VMDK, which is the size of the only disk the server has (35 GB). The other VMDK is -000002.VMDK, which is around 7 GB, which looks like a delta file to me. Snapshot Manager doesn't show any snapshots. The owner of the VM deleted the only snapshot a couple of weeks ago, so I would have expected the delta file to have been consolidated by the system, and then to disappear. I don't like that idea of just acknowledging and clearing the alarm, and leaving that -000002.VMDK file hanging out there. I wonder if I acknowledged and cleared the alarm, would I be able to safely delete the 000002.VMDK file?
The VM is running fine, according to the owner. Like Show 0 Likes.