How to monitor snapshot deletion using esxtop command

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to monitor the snapshot deletion using esxtop when time stamps are not updating for virtual-mode RDM base disks.

Resolution

1. Log in as root to the ESXi host using SSH.
2. Run the esxtop command.
3. Press v to see the virtual machines that are in Powered ON state. (This command will display all the virtual machine which are Powered ON)
4. Locate the virtual machine on which the Snapshot consolidation task is running.
5. Type e to expand.
6. Enter the Group World ID (value from GID column).
7. And press Enter.
8. Make a note of the World ID (ID column) of the virtual machine on which Snapshot consolidation task is running.
9. Type u to display the disk device statistics.
10. Type e to expand and enter the device where the snapshot consolidation process is writing to.

         For example: naa.xxxxxxx value

         Note:

• For a regular vmdk file, the device is the datastore on which the flat.vmdk file is located.
• For a flat vmdk, identifying the datastore device ID can be done by running esxcfg-scsidevs -m.
• For RDM, the vmkfstools -q against the pointer file reveals the vml ID, which needs to be correlated with the output of ls -l /vmfs/devices/disks/ to get the device ID.

   11. Identify the Group World ID from step 6.

        Note: You may need to sort by MBREAD/s (press R) or MBWRTN/s (press T) to see the process at the top of the screen.

   12. Review the number IOPS and throughput for the Consolidation process (WRITES/s and MBWRTN/s columns) to ensure that there is activity and the process is working.