Here’s a helpful breakdown and reference-style "paper" (conceptual guide) for understanding and safely deleting a (typically from snapshots).
For automating tasks or managing large environments, consider using VMware PowerCLI scripts. PowerCLI can help automate tasks such as identifying and cleaning up delta VMDKs across your environment.
: Using the datastore browser in the vSphere client or an SFTP/SCP client (for ESXi hosts), navigate to where the delta VMDK resides and delete it. vmware delta vmdk delete
Right-click the impacted Virtual Machine and select > Manage Snapshots .
Multiple snapshots create a sequential dependency chain ( 000001-delta , 000002-delta ). : Using the datastore browser in the vSphere
Delta VMDKs are differencing disks that store changes made to a VM's disk. They are created when a VM is powered on, and changes are made to the disk. Delta VMDKs are used to:
Always refer to the official VMware documentation and community forums for the most current and detailed guidance on managing VMware environments. Delta VMDKs are differencing disks that store changes
Get-VM | Where-Object $_.Snapshot -and $_.Snapshot.Count -gt 0 | ForEach-Object Remove-Snapshot -VM $_ -Snapshot $_
from the datastore unless you fully understand the snapshot chain. Deleting the wrong file can corrupt the VM.
Deleting delta VMDKs is essential for several reasons: