too many VDI/VHD per VM, how to get rid of unused ones

[olivierlambert]

This would have been far easier if you used Xen Orchestra to see all those orphaned VDIs

[robert wild]

@olivierlambert how do i do that, can i delete the orpahned vdi's from there aswell?

[olivierlambert]

Yes, you can.

1. In SR view in XO, you have a filter "Orphaned VDI" you can select them all and remove them all at once
2. In Dashboard/Health view, you have a recap on all potential VDI issues. You can also delete all VDIs needed there

[robert wild]

Olivier, you are awesome as i was going to do all this manually!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so is it ok to delete all the "Orphaned snapshot VDIs" and "Orphaned VMs snapshot"

[olivierlambert]

Yes, I would do that. It means all those VDIs aren't connected to any VM. So it's very likely (except if you did something on purpose) that those VDIs are useless.

I think you get why Xen Orchestra is the de facto client for Citrix Hypervisor and XCP-ng

[robert wild]

@olivierlambert yes i can see now why XOA works really well with xen/xcp-ng

[robert wild]

mmm.... its asking me for the orphaned vm snapshots if i really want to delete them

im guessing i do?!?

[olivierlambert]

There's no reason to have orphaned VM snapshots

[robert wild]

thanks Olivier!!!!!!

now my VDI's, i see i have multiple VDI's for my VMs

for example my "dataio vm"

i have a main vm running and i have a continious replication of the dataio vm

now can i delete any of them as i seem to be just racking up multiple VDI's of the same VM

[olivierlambert]

Continue to remove all orphaned VDIs

[robert wild]

@olivierlambert but I can't see any more orphaned vdis on XOA?

[olivierlambert]

In the SR view, disk tab, bottom right, magnifying glass icon, select "Orphaned VDIs".

[robert wild]

@olivierlambert your amazing Olivier, so I imagine I can delete all the orphaned vdi's

[olivierlambert]

Yes, as long as you don't have intentionally left a VDI connected to no VM whatsoever, you can remove all of them.

[robert wild]

im looking and i see no vms attached to the orphaned disks

[olivierlambert]

That's by definition why are they called "orphaned" The question is: have you decided to disconnect some VDI of some VM by yourself or they just are here because they are leftover of some failed operations?

I think that in your case, you can remove them all.

[robert wild]

thanks Olivier because when i change the magnifying glass to "type:!VDI-unmanaged" i see under the VMs the actual live vm name and the backup vm so i think its safe to delete all the orphaned ones

[olivierlambert]

Yes, VDIs connected to a VM are by definition not orphaned. You don't want to remove those.

[robert wild]

just out of interest when i change the magnifying glass to "type:VDI-unmanaged"

it lists "base copy"

what are they?

[olivierlambert]

They are the read only parent of a disk (when you do a snapshot, in fact it creates 3 disks: the base copy in read only, the new active disk and the snapshot).

If you remove the snapshot, then a coalesce will appear, to merge the active disk within the base copy, and get back to the initial state: 1 disk only.