The warning ‘VMWare: virtual machine disks consolidation is needed’ indicates that while deleting a snapshot, the snapshot VMDK files or logs have not been deleted correctly.

Here at Bobcares, we have seen several such VMWare related errors as part of our Server Management Services for web hosts and online service providers.

Today we will take a look at the causes for this error and see how to fix it.

What causes ‘VMWare: virtual machine disks consolidation is needed’ warning to appear

Here are the different causes of this VMWare error to occur.

1. Snapshots can’t be deleted due to poor storage performance. It happens due to a timeout or a large size of a snapshot.
2. No enough space on the VMFS store to perform consolidation
3. If the vSphere or a third-party app has locked snapshot files. So ensure that there are no running processes of a virtual machine backup.
4. Having any connection issues between the vCenter Server and the ESXi host.

How we resolve ‘VMWare: virtual machine disks consolidation is needed’ warning

Now let’s see how our Support Engineers assist our customers in resolving this warning message.

First, right-click on the virtual machine and select VM >> Snapshots >> Consolidate.

Then a window with the below request appears.

Here, click on Yes to confirm that you want to delete the redundant logs. As a result, the vCenter will consolidate disks and clear the logs. It might take a few minutes for the consolidation to take place and the VM performance may degrade.

Finally, the warning of the VM consolidation must disappear.

In a few cases, you may see the below error in the vSphere console during consolidation.

In such a case, VMWare recommends restarting Management agents on the ESXi server. To do it, run the below command after connecting to the host via SSH.

services.sh restart

Moreover, you can try unlocking the VM files as follows.

1. If possible, shut down the VM.
2. Try creating a new snapshot.
3. Using the ‘Delete All’ option, delete all the VM snapshots.
4. Using vMotion, move the VM to another ESXi.
5. Try consolidating the snapshots as described above.

You can also find all the virtual machines that require consolidation using PowerCLI. To do it, connect to your vCenter server:

Connect-VIServer mun_vsphere.woshub.com

You must get the list of all the VMs with the status ‘Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed’:

Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.Extensiondata.Runtime.ConsolidationNeeded}

After that, you must consolidate the disks of all machines in the list:

Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.Extensiondata.Runtime.ConsolidationNeeded} | foreach {$_.ExtensionData.ConsolidateVMDisks_Task()}

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Conclusion

In short, this warning indicates that while deleting a snapshot, the snapshot VMDK files or logs have not been deleted correctly. Today, we saw the solution provided by our Support Engineers to this error.