I'm sure you're aware of the problem. You have a host with a lots of VMs running and you're seeking to free some space. So you want to check whether there are not any duplicate or orphaned VMDKs laying around. You definitely want to find orphaned VMDKs within your environment, because they're simply useless and only taking space.
You can do this via different ways, such as executing a script or going through a CLI, but you may be not aware that there is a free tool that can save you some time with this. The tool's name is, and I'm sure you know it. It's RV Tools.
Find orphaned VMDK files – the overview
The tool can easily locate “zombie” VMDKs within your infrastructure. You can connect directly to your ESXi host(s) one by one, but if those hosts are managed via vCenter server, it's even more easy, because RV Tools can report on any VMDK from the data pulled by your vCenter server.
RVTools is a free and lightweight tool that provides a comprehensive view of VMware environments. It is a powerful tool that can be used to manage, monitor, and report on virtual machines, hosts, datastores, and other VMware components. One of the most useful features of RVTools is its ability to locate orphaned VMDK files within VMware environments. You can find other free tools on our free tools page too.
An orphaned VMDK file is a virtual disk file that is no longer associated with any virtual machine. This can happen when a virtual machine is deleted, but its virtual disk files are not removed from the datastore. Orphaned VMDK files can take up valuable storage space and cause performance issues in VMware environments. Therefore, it is important to locate and remove these files to optimize the performance of the environment and free up storage space.
RVTools can help find orphaned VMDKs files by generating a report that lists all the virtual disk files in the datastore and their associated virtual machines. The report also includes information about the size, location, and creation date of each virtual disk file. By analyzing this report, administrators can identify virtual disk files that are not associated with any virtual machine and remove them from the datastore.
Find orphaned VMDKs files using RVTools, follow these steps:
- Download and install RVTools on a Windows machine that has access to the VMware environment.
- Launch RVTools and connect to the VMware environment by providing the necessary credentials.
- Click on the “vDatastore” tab to view the list of datastores in the environment.
- Select the datastore that you want to analyze for orphaned VMDK files.
- Click on the “vDisk” tab to view the list of virtual disk files in the selected datastore.
- Click on the “Export to Excel” button to generate a report of all the virtual disk files in the datastore.
- Open the Excel file and analyze the report to identify virtual disk files that are not associated with any virtual machine.
- Remove the orphaned VMDK files from the datastore using the datastore browser or any other method of your choice
Final Words
RVTools is a powerful tool that can help administrators manage, monitor, and report on VMware environments. Its ability to locate orphaned VMDK files is a valuable feature that can help optimize the performance of the environment and free up storage space. By following the steps outlined above, administrators can easily generate a report of orphaned VMDK files and remove them from the datastore.
More posts from ESX Virtualization:
- VMware vCenter Server 8.0 U1b resolves further upgrade issues and adds bunch of security patches
- VMware vCenter Server Appliance 8.0U1a Released
- Homelab v 8.0 (NEW)
- vSphere 8.0 Page (NEW)
- Veeam Bare Metal Recovery Without using USB Stick (TIP)
- ESXi 7.x to 8.x upgrade scenarios
- A really FREE VPN that doesn’t suck
- Patch your ESXi 7.x again
- VMware vCenter Server 7.03 U3g – Download and patch
- Upgrade VMware ESXi to 7.0 U3 via command line
- VMware vCenter Server 7.0 U3e released – another maintenance release fixing vSphere with Tanzu
- What is The Difference between VMware vSphere, ESXi and vCenter
- How to Configure VMware High Availability (HA) Cluster
Stay tuned through RSS, and social media channels (Twitter, FB, YouTube)
