Virtual machine stop running with error message "There is no more space for virtual disk"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Datastore running with low free space.
• Virtual machine stops working.
• In the summary of the virtual machine in vCenter UI there is an error message similar to:

"There is no more space for virtual disk '<name_of_disk>.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."

• Also in the summary of the virtual machine in vCenter UI when trying to perform svmotion might be error message similar to:
  
  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 '/vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/VM_name/vm.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.'.
  
  
• VM could be crushed with below log entry and Backtrace.
  
  [DATE/TIME] In(05) vmx - [msg.hbacommon.outofspace] There is no more space for virtual disk '/vmfs/volumes/DATASTORE_LOCATION/VM_NAME/VM_DISK.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.
  [DATE/TIME] In(05) vmx - ----------------------------------------
  [DATE/TIME] In(05) vmx - MsgQuestion: msg.hbacommon.outofspace reply=1
  [DATE/TIME] Cr(01) vmx - PANIC: Exiting because of failed disk operation.
  [DATE/TIME] In(05) vmx - Backtrace:
  [DATE/TIME] In(05) vmx - Backtrace[0] 0000033d09eee500 rip=00000009cc990b69 rbx=0000033d09eee520 rbp=0000033d09eeea00 r12=00000009cdc20080 r13=0000000000000001 r14=00000009cd5d2ee8 r15=00000009cd5d2f04
  [DATE/TIME] In(05) vmx - Backtrace[1] 0000033d09eeea10 rip=00000009ccb183cf rbx=00000009ce5619e0 rbp=0000033d09eeea50 r12=00000009cd93dc00 r13=00000009ce5619e5 r14=00000009cd5d2ee8 r15=00000009cd5d2f04
  
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Resolution

To resolve this issue, follow the steps below:

1. Clear unwanted data like old log bundle, ISO images, etc. to free space on the Datastore
2. Consolidate or delete snapshots with the KB "An error occurred while consolidating disks" when deleting one or more snapshots or consolidate disks
3. If the swap file is too large for the VM, consider temporarily adding a memory reservation to the VM.
4. Consider increasing the space of the actual LUN.
5. If the LUN is thin provisioned from the storage array, ensure the pool has enough free capacity.
6. Clone the vmdk to other datastore with enough free space with KB Cloning and converting virtual machine disks with vmkfstools
7. Restarting ESXi services or rebooting the ESXi server will not help to free-up space.

Additional Information

VMware Skyline Health Diagnostics for vSphere - FAQ
Failed to power on virtual machine