Bill H
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vmware disk on snapshot
hi guys,
i have a VM with the c: drive that shows c_00001 on it, which i believe is running on a snapshot. How do i fix this? It seems when my backups run at night using veeam this VM goes offline for a few minutes. This is vmware esx 5.1
i have a VM with the c: drive that shows c_00001 on it, which i believe is running on a snapshot. How do i fix this? It seems when my backups run at night using veeam this VM goes offline for a few minutes. This is vmware esx 5.1
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A snapshot is routinely taken during backup in order to receive a sonsistent backup of all hard drive content: The minute you start a backup, all changes are written 'to the side' and only manifested after the backup finished. That way you get the exact state the disk was in when the backup started.
Snapshots are deleted after the backup finishes - all changes that were previously written to the side (=into the snapshot) are now written into the true disk and the side note is removed.
Snapshots are deleted after the backup finishes - all changes that were previously written to the side (=into the snapshot) are now written into the true disk and the side note is removed.
ASKER
Ralph that doesn't tell me why the disk has 00001 after it though.
It's the first out of potentially many snapshots.
The disk is called c.vmdk in your example. The first snapshot is c-00001.vmdk. Your c.vmdk remains untouched while the snapshot is active and all changes are written to c-00001.vmdk. So c-00001.vmdk starts out small, and as you work on it it will get bigger up to the size the drive is assigend if each and every block has been changed compared to the disk before the snapshot.
If another snapshot is created before the first is deleted, it will be called c-000002.vmdk and so on. When a snapshot is deleted, it's changes should be "melted" into the preceding snapshot or the original drive, subsequently the snapshot file will be deleted.
While a snapshot exists, certain functions are disabled. You cannot, for example, resize a drive.
The disk is called c.vmdk in your example. The first snapshot is c-00001.vmdk. Your c.vmdk remains untouched while the snapshot is active and all changes are written to c-00001.vmdk. So c-00001.vmdk starts out small, and as you work on it it will get bigger up to the size the drive is assigend if each and every block has been changed compared to the disk before the snapshot.
If another snapshot is created before the first is deleted, it will be called c-000002.vmdk and so on. When a snapshot is deleted, it's changes should be "melted" into the preceding snapshot or the original drive, subsequently the snapshot file will be deleted.
While a snapshot exists, certain functions are disabled. You cannot, for example, resize a drive.
Veeam has a clean-up process that should clean this up. If a VM does not have enough quiet time it may have issues deleting a snapshot, using less threads on a proxy may resolve the issue.
You may want to read my EE Article, if you do not know what snapshots are....
HOW TO: VMware Snapshots :- Be Patient
HOW TO: VMware Snapshots :- Be Patient
ASKER
Paulsolov, would u happen to have the process to clean it up.
Also is there a risk of running things as they are now?
Also is there a risk of running things as they are now?
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ASKER
andrew, following your steps, it should remove snapshots and i should be OK right?
Correct, but check the folder, and also the disk, see my EE Article, to check it's still not running on a snapshot.
ASKER
Thanks Andrew..i will try this, while this is occuring, is the VM inaccessible?
The VM is still available if powered on, but performance is likely to be even worse! So be warned, and Advise End Users etc
ASKER
Sounds good, running this weekend.
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