Folder name in VM copy

[alwitco]

This is more for my own curiosity than anything else. Can someone please tell me what the numbers in the brackets, next to the VM in the new folder created by a VM copy job mean? For example if I copy a VM called DC2 to a different datastore, I get a folder name called DC2(163) for the copy. The numbers are always random, I've seen 2 digit numbers and 3 digit numbers.

BTW, the reason I'm using VM copy is I found that when you copy a VM, you get just the disc and related files without all the snapshots. I have a VM that has some very large and old consolidate helper-0 (2 yrs) snapshots that were left and continue to grow. Rather than try deleting all snapshots and waiting for who knows how many hours or days, and keeping my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong, this does sort of the same thing and cleans up the folder contents in under an hour. I have only done this to test the above and have powered on the copy, but didn't put the copy into production yet and delete the original. I'm waiting for a weekend to do this so I can take the original offline and make a copy.

Is this a reasonable/safe method of getting rid of those consolidate helper snaps, or am I looking for trouble down the road by doing this? Also, I understand that copies are now thick disk rather than thin, can the new discs be changed back to thin?

Thanks for any feedback !!

[foggy]

This is more for my own curiosity than anything else. Can someone please tell me what the numbers in the brackets, next to the VM in the new folder created by a VM copy job mean?

The number in the folder name is the VM mo-ref ID.

Is this a reasonable/safe method of getting rid of those consolidate helper snaps, or am I looking for trouble down the road by doing this?

Snapshots get consolidated into a single flat file during VM copy job. This is safe, but aren't you able to consolidate them manually via vSphere Client (creating a new snapshot and then using the "Consolidate" option)?

Also, I understand that copies are now thick disk rather than thin, can the new discs be changed back to thin?

Thin disks cannot exist without being attached to a registered VM, so the disk format is changed to thick during VM Copy jobs. You can convert the disks back to thin after registering the copied VM.

[alwitco]

Foggy,

Thanks for the answers. What is mo-ref ?

Also:

"Snapshots get consolidated into a single flat file during VM copy job. This is safe, but aren't you able to consolidate them manually via vSphere Client (creating a new snapshot and then using the "Consolidate" option)?"

I haven't even tried the above. I have 2 drives in this VM, both are 40 gb or 80 total. The consolidate helper snaps are also both 40 gb each. I only have around 90 gb free space on the datastore, so first I'm afraid I could run into issues because of the space needed, and also from past experiences of deleting all snapshots which were much much smaller, it took next to forever to complete, where as doing the VM copy only took 45 minutes.

Am I being overly worried about using you method "creating a new snapshot and then using the "Consolidate" option" ??

[Vitaliy S.]

VM moref is an ID which used by vCenter Server/ESX(i) host to track this VM.

...all snapshots which were much much smaller, it took next to forever to complete, where as doing the VM copy only took 45 minutes.

VM snapshot consolidation process depends on the datastore IO performance, snapshot size and the number of snapshots in the VM snapshot tree.

Am I being overly worried about using you method "creating a new snapshot and then using the "Consolidate" option" ??

This technique is widely used by VMware admins, so you shouldn't worry about that.