Remove orphaned vmdk files

Are there any snapshots on the VMs? The numeric sequence of the VMDKs indicate they are almost definitely snapshot files.

There are. I told it to consolidate snapshots, it said completed it took a few seconds and the files are still there. Ah, this is a fun problem. That being said, call VMware support and have them do this stuff, because they have much more experience with this than anyone here. Consolidating the snapshots won't necessarily delete those files if the are from manual snapshots.

You would have to go to the manage snapshots and then delete the manual snapshots that are not in use. Brand Representative for VMware. That said, trying to go through the Snapshot manager and deleting all snapshots that way will insure that you are sitting on a 'clean' vm. If the files are still there and when you open your Snapshot Manager there are not snapshots, then you should be good to go with deleting these old snapshots.

No you can not! But freeing up disk space is an excellent way to improve VM performance, and deleting zombie VMDK files can help you maximize storage and optimize network capabilities. If you need a helpful tool to manage your virtual machine environment including those hosted in the cloud and you face problems such as lack of an efficient tool to detect and evaluate zombie VMDK files, lack of information about VM performance, events not being detected in time or alerted to administrators, or insufficient control of the VM environment at the hypervisor level, try VMAN with a day free trial.

Virtualizers, also known as hypervisors , allow individual software within your IT environment to run efficiently without directly connecting to any specific hardware. Please check! Something as simple as a backup restore from a hypervisor database could cause certain files to reappear incorrectly marked as orphaned.

While this may seem like a safe option, accumulating tons of zombie VMDK files is far worse for your network than accidentally deleting an important VMDK file. Deleting zombie VMDK files will enable you to gain back lost storage, resources, and disk space to foster an environment where in-use VMDK files can thrive. Move the suspected derelict files. Power it back up. If all is well If not, put em back. One way I used to verify the orphans was to check the locations of my vmdk's through the VM config where you see which datastore s the disks were in.

After verifying which datastores my vmdk's were running on, I could safely go to the vmdk's outside the config and just delete them. RV Tools is great for detecting orphans and zombies. To continue this discussion, please ask a new question. Get answers from your peers along with millions of IT pros who visit Spiceworks. Thanks for your time.