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."

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