vSAN storage consumption exceeds workload utilization due to Veeam replica restore points

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Virtual machines residing on vSAN datastores report significantly higher data consumption than active workload utilization. Storage capacity in the vSAN cluster is rapidly depleted due to replica virtual machines.

 

Environment

ESXi 8.0.3

Cause

The increased storage consumption on the vSAN datastore is caused by multiple restore points configured in Veeam Backup for replica virtual machines. This configuration continuously generates and retains numerous virtual machine snapshots.

Upon review, it was identified that multiple restore points were configured in Veeam Backup, which resulted in increased storage consumption on vSAN for the replica VM.

Resolution

• Review the backup job configurations in Veeam Backup and replication settings for the affected replica virtual machines.
• Adjust the retention policy to reduce the number of configured restore points if they exceed current business requirements.
• Perform a cleanup of unused or orphaned snapshots on the affected virtual machines via the vSphere Client.
• Identify and remove any inactive or unused virtual machines from the vSAN datastore to reclaim additional storage capacity.