Remove Disks to confirm they are unused – A server stack is the collection of software that forms the operational infrastructure on a given machine. In a computing context, a stack is an ordered pile. A server stack is one type of solution stack — an ordered selection of software that makes it possible to complete a particular task. Like in this post about Remove Disks to confirm they are unused was one problem in server stack that need for a solution. Below are some tips in manage your linux server when you find problem about linux, vmware-esxi, vmware-vsphere, , .
BACKGROUND:
One of my linux servers (running on vmware) had gone through a series of disk replacements, and resizing. Unfortunately I was not involved in these changes. I am now looking at the server and I found 4 disks which are not mounted in the OS. The disks are thin but still take up over 1TB of space (more then I would like to sit filled but not used).I got some pushback for the application owner from simply deleting the disks I identified as unmounted. Apparently it is a lot of work to recover when existing data is missing.
QUESTION/s:
Is there a way to disconnect the vmdk files to prove the disks are not used? The idea being that if I am wrong,and a disk was needed, I would get a error (linux or vmware error) and I could reconnect the disk.
Alternately is it possible to see if data is being written to a vmdk file? As all disks are re-thinned and I wrote data to them I should see them grow, but is this the most effective way to confirm the disks aren’t used?
Sure, just remove the disk:
As long as you don’t check Delete files from datastore the files will stay there and you can add them again:
