vSAN -- Not showing correct capacity/free storage tied to Product -- Data has been removed but Storage did not free up

Products

• VMware vSAN
• VMware vSAN 7.x
• VMware vSAN 8.x

Issue/Introduction

Applies only for vSAN Clusters using vSAN File Services:

After recent deletions of vSAN File Sevices data, the vSAN Datastore does not reflect the correct free space,

when taking into account the space used by VMs located on the vSAN Datastore.

 

Example: 

The vSAN Datastore has much less free space available (= in example below: 58.1 TB free space) 

 

than VMs using the vSAN Datastore (= in the example below: 4.32 TB of vSAN Datastore space is used by VMs)

 

(When assuming that only VMs are located on the vSAN Datastore )

Environment

vSAN 7.x

vSAN 8.x

Cause

When checking the data on the vSAN Datastore, a lot of unassociated vSAN File Service Objects can be found via:

 

1.) Connect to one of the vSAN Hosts via SSH/Putty

2.) Run the following command: 

esxcli vsan debug object list --all | grep -iE "size:|type|path|object uuid"

 

3.) Output shows many of unassociated Objects associated with vSAN File Services:

Object UUID: #######-####-####-####-#######

Size: 255.00 GB

Type: vdfs

Path: (null)

Resolution

Enable vSAN unmap feature to reclaim storage space that is mapped to deleted files in the vSAN Distributed File System (VDFS).

See Reclaiming Space with Unmap for details

Note: The command vsan.unmap_support –enable is to be run by opening an SSH/Putty session to vCenter and then start the RVC Console

 

 

Steps for enabling trim/unmap in version 7.x:

 

1.) Open a SSH/Putty Session to vCenter

2.) Follow the instructions on how to login into the RVC Console by following the steps outlined in document vmw-vsan-space-efficiency

page 13 - Section "Example: Using RVC to enable unmap_support" 

 

3.) Ensure that that the VMs (ignore the vCLS) are all powered off and powered back on, along with using these HW Versions:

Windows VM: Hardware version 11 or higher

Linux VM: Hardware version 13 or higher

 

4.) Monitor the status of the free space of the vSAN Datastore since the process to reclaim might take some time (reclaiming space in size of TBs might take days)

 

As of version 8.x you can enable trim/unmap from the vCenter Web Client see KB Procedure to Enable TRIM/UNMAP for more details.

 

If assistance is required, please open a Ticket with VMware by Broadcom Support.

Additional Information

vSAN File Services Documentation