Failed to delete the snapshot due to high datastore usage with error: There is no more space for virtual disk XXX.vmdk. You might be able to continue this session by freeing disk space on the relevant volume, and clicking Retry...

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms : 

• When attempting to delete a snapshot or perform snapshot consolidation, the operation fails.
• The following errors are displayed in the Virtual Machine Summary tab within vCenter Server > vSAN Cluster > Virtual Machine > Summary.

The operation cannot be allowed at the current time because the virtual machine has a question pending: 'msg.hbacommon.outofspace: There is no more space for virtual disk 'XXX.XXXX-000001.vmdk'. You might be able to continue this session by freeing disk space on the relevant volume, and clicking Retry. Click Cancel to terminate this session.'

• Unable to power ON the virtual machine residing on the vSAN cluster.

Environment

VMware vSAN 7.x
VMware vSAN 8.x

Cause

Snapshot consolidation may fail if the underline vSAN disk backing the virtual machine’s VMDK becomes nearly full, leaving insufficient space for operations.

vSAN requires free space on the disk to perform these operations. When space is not available, the system will block further I/O to prevent data corruption.

Use the following command to check disk usage across all hosts in the vSAN cluster:

esxcli vsan debug disk overview

Resolution

To resolve the snapshot consolidation failure caused by disk space exhaustion in a vSAN environment, follow the steps below:

1. Take Action Based on Disk Usage, If all disks have sufficient free space, proceed with snapshot consolidation.

   • If any disk is close to full, take one of the following actions:

   • Add capacity to the vSAN datastore (e.g., by adding disks or disk groups).

   • Clean up unused files or stale snapshots to free up space

2. Enable Automatic Rebalancing 

Additional Information

For guidance on vSAN capacity planning and datastore sizing, refer to the official VMware documentation:
Planning Capacity in vSAN