Consolidating snapshots in VMware Workstation
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Consolidating snapshots in VMware Workstation

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Article ID: 340664

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

  • When starting a virtual machine, following warning is observed:

VMware has paused this virtual machine because the disk on which the virtual machine is stored is almost full. To continue, free up at least <Size> GB of disk space.

This virtual machine has more than 100 snapshots in a single branch of its snapshot tree. If you take more snapshots of this virtual machine in this branch, the guest operating system may not boot again. You should either delete some snapshots or make a full clone of the virtual machine. 

  • Deleting snapshots shows following message:

Unable to clean up deleted files. There is not enough space on the file system for the selected operation.

An error occurred while deleting a snapshot: The file specified is not a virtual disk.

  • Snapshots is not visible in the snapshot manager, but a warning message is observed: 

Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed.

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 26H1u1

Cause

Consolidation of the snapshots fails due to following reasons:

  1. Not enough space available in the virtual machine directory.
  2. One of more Snapshot metadata is corrupted.
  3. Too many snapshots in the Snapshot manager.

Resolution

Note: Take backup of the entire virtual machine directory before preceding. Refer: Best practices when backing up a VMware Workstation virtual machine

The most likely reason for running out of disk space is that one or more snapshots have grown too large. If this occurs, three options are available to resolve the issue:

  1. Make more space.
  2. Automatically consolidate snapshots
  3. Manually consolidate the snapshots

Option 1: Automatically consolidate snapshots

  1. Shut down the virtual machine.

  2. Go to the option 'VM' > 'Snapshot Manager'.

  3. Select each snapshot and delete the snapshots from left-to-right.

This consolidates all the snapshots into the main disk. If there is not enough disk space available or snapshot manager does not show any snapshots, follow option 2 for manual snapshot consolidation.

Option 2: Manually consolidate snapshots

To consolidate data from the snapshot(s) and from the main virtual disk, use the command-line utility vmware-vdiskmanager to create a new virtual disk.

  1. Power off the virtual machine. Close the VMware Workstation application entirely.

  2. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to the folder where that virtual machine is saved.

  3. Launch Command Prompt with Administrator privileges (right-click and select "Run as administrator").

  4. Run manual consolidation using the following command syntax: "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -r "<Path_to_the_latest_snapshot_file.vmdk>" -t 0 "<Path_to_the_new_consolidated_file.vmdk>"

    Example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -r "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows11\Windows11.vmdk" -t 0 "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows11_new\NewDisk.vmdk"

  5.  A message that says Converting... followed by a percentage appears. The length of the process varies depending on the size of the virtual machine.

  6. Create a new virtual machine based on this 'NewDisk.vmdk' file or point the existing virtual machine to the 'NewDisk.vmdk' hard disk. To create a new virtual machine and use the consolidated virtual disk, refer to Creating a Workstation virtual machine using existing VMDK virtual disks (2010196)

Option 3: V2V Conversion using VMware vCenter Converter

If Options 1 and 2 do not resolve the issue due to corrupted snapshot chain or metadata files, follow these steps for a V2V (virtual to virtual) conversion:

Note: If the source VM uses a Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM), the state may not carry over, which could invalidate cryptographic credentials or load temporary user profiles in Windows 11.

  1. Preparation: Disable User Account Control (UAC) on both the source VM and the local windows machine where vCenter converter is being run. Refer: Error: "Permission to Perform This Operation Was Denied" while performing P2V conversion using VMware vCenter Converter.

  2. Clear existing network connections to the source virtual machine from an elevated command prompt by running command: net use * /delete

  3. Download and install VMware vCenter Converter Standalone on both source virtual machine and local windows machine where vCenter converter needs to be run. Log in to the Broadcom Support Portal and download the latest version of VMware Converter Standalone.

  4. Launch VMware vCenter Converter Standalone on the local windows machine as an Administrator.

  5. Click 'Convert machine' to open the 'Conversion' window. On the 'Source System' page and under 'Select source type', select the "Powered on" radio button.

  6. Select "Remote Windows machine" from the drop-down menu. Enter the IP address of the source virtual machine and the credentials for a user account that has full administrative permissions on the source machine. Click Next.

  7. On the 'Destination System' page > 'Select destination type', select the "VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual machine" from the drop down list. Select latest version under 'Hardware compatibility'. 

  8. Provide new virtual machine name and new virtual machine's file location. Click Next.

  9. Review Options and Summary. If all the settings for the destination virtual machine are correct click Finish.

  10. Post-Conversion: The target virtual machine will have a single consolidated disk.

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