VM consolidation tasks fail with the error "Consolidation failed for disk node 'scsi#:#': ## (File too large). An error occurred while consolidating disks: ## (File too large)."

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to consolidate snapshots on a virtual machine (VM), the following error is observed in the vSphere Client:

Consolidation failed for disk node 'scsi#:#': ## (File too large). An error occurred while consolidating disks: ## (File too large).

• 'Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed' warning is visible in the Virtual Machine summary tab. 
  
  
  
  
• As long as the virtual is in powered on state, it remains functional, but once powered off it fails to power on again.
• Attempts to migrate the affected VM to a different datastore fail as well, while the VM is in powered on state. 
• In some situations the consolidation task might succeed, but when reviewing the attached disks in the VM settings you see that it is still running on a snapshot disk.
• From the ESXi host on which the VM resides it can be seen that the consolidation failed due to a lack of disk space.
• When reviewing /var/run/log/hostd.log, errors similar to the following ones can be found:

DiskLib_IsCombinePossible: Could not get free space on disk using /vmfs/volumes/...

Consolidate Disks message: An error occurred while consolidating disks: File too large.

Event 33746 : Virtual machine ##### disks consolidation failed on ##### in cluster ##### in ha-datacenter.

• The VMX log, /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<VM_name>/vmware.log, contains entries similar to the ones below: 

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.###<Time_Zone> In (05) vcpu-0 - ConsolidateItemComplete: Online consolidation failed for disk node 'scsi#:#': File too large
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.###<Time_Zone> In(05) worker-2964175 - DISKLIB-LIB : DiskLib IsCombinePossible: Could not get free space on disk using /vmf s/volumes/<Datastore>/<VM_name>/<VM_name>.vmdk.
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.###<Time_Zone> In(05) worker-2964175 - ConsolidateCheckSpaceNeeded: Not enough space to combine source disk: ' /vmfs/volumes/<Datastore>/<VM_name>/<VM_name-00000#. vmdk' and destination disk: '/vmfs/volumes/<Datastore>/<VM_name>/ <VM_name>.vmdk.': File too large (1769481)
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.###<Time_Zone> In(05) vcpu-0- Destroying virtual dev for scsi#:# vscsi=############

  
  
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

 

Cause

This issue occurs due to insufficient free space on the datastore hosting the virtual machine's disk files.

To successfully consolidate snapshots, the available free space must be at least 1.5 times the total size of all snapshot files (.vmdk) for the virtual machine. If this requirement is not met, consolidation will fail with errors such as “File too large.”

Resolution

To resolve this issue, perform the following steps:

1. Calculate the amount of free disk space required for the consolidation, using the guidance documented in How to calculate snapshot consolidation space requirements.

2. Free Up Datastore Space by:

   1. Removing or relocating unused files.

   2. Migrating other VMs to different datastores.

   3. Extending the datastore, if possible.

3. Once sufficient space is available, retry the consolidation, by right-clicking the VM and selecting Snapshots > Consolidate.

4. Monitor the task in vSphere Client to ensure successful completion.

 

If you are unable to provide more free space on the specific datastore, as a workaround, you can migrate the disks or clone the VM to a different datastore while it is in powered off state (During powered ON snapshot consolidation, a temporary snapshot is created to hold the active changes. This can increase in size if the snapshot consolidation task takes long. So if the VM is powered OFF, this file will not grow in size to fill up the datastore.):

1. Power off the virtual machine

   1. Migrate the disk with the snapshot chain to another datastore to consolidate.

   2. Clone the VM to another datastore. This will keep the original VM in it's current unconsolidated state, but the cloned VM will have the snapshots automatically consolidated.

Additional Information

In order to avoid situations like this, it is crucial to monitor for snapshots in the environment and delete them as soon as possible. Please refer to Best practices for using VMware snapshots in the vSphere environment for more information.