Virtual Machine tasks fail with error "No more space for virtual disk".

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms 

• A Virtual Machine residing on an NFSv3 datastore fails to power on or consolidation.
  
  
• While the vSphere Client UI indicates that the datastore has sufficient free space, the following error is displayed under the VMs Issues and Alarms tab:

There is no more space for virtual disk /vmfs/volumes/#########-#######-####-############/VM_NAME/VM_NAME.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.

• Warnings similar to the following will be observed in the var/log/vmkernel.log file:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu#:####)WARNING: NFS: ####: <volume_name>: No space on NFS volume.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi (All versions)

Cause

This issue typically occurs in thin-provisioned environments when the backend physical storage array exhausts its capacity despite the logical NFS export reporting available space, causing the storage processor to return an "Out of Space" error at the file system layer when the ESXi host attempts to write to the volume because it cannot allocate more physical blocks

Resolution

• Reclaim physical space or add it at the storage array level.

• Engage the storage vendor to free up space and/or add additional storage on the backend.

Additional Information

Physical Storage Reclamation and Expansion Workflow:

• Log into the management interface of the storage provider to verify the actual physical utilization of the pool/aggregate.

• Delete unused snapshots, old volumes, or orphaned files on the storage array to free up physical blocks.

• If no space can be reclaimed, increase the physical capacity of the underlying storage pool or aggregate.

• Once the storage vendor confirms physical space is available, click Retry in the vSphere error prompt or attempt the VM task again.

If the issue persists and further assistance is needed, please refer to Contact Broadcom Support (KB 206567).