ESXi remaining datastore size incorrect

[36Degrees]

I've somehow managed to lose 100GB of my datastore on ESXi 4!

The reported size is 227GB (size of the physical disk) and I currently have 2 virtual servers on it - 1 is a development server with 20GB hard drive space, the other an operational server with 100GB hard drive space - total 120GB. Yet ESXi says 220GB is in use.

Any ideas where the other 100GB has gone and how to get it back?

[Butuz]

Have you been staking snapshots of both the servers? Snapshots use up extra space.

Butuz

[36Degrees]

No, I haven't taken any snapshots.

[Duke]

Couple of probably stupid suggestions - have you refreshed storage usage, and have you had a look using the datastore browser to see what's actually in there?

[36Degrees]

Not a stupid question at all - I wasn't aware I could do that (new to VMWare)! Discovered 2 100GB files - server.vmdk modified today (correct) and server_1.vmdk modified 2 few days ago when I was trying to add a new disk. Obviously I did something wrong at the time!

I've now deleted server_1.vmdk, available storage has increased by 100GB and I haven't broken anything. Thanks.

[Duke]

No worries! You learn something new every day.