how to free up VMWare datastore/NetApp LUN space after deleted snapshots on the volume

[FelixZhou]

We have some VMWare datastores/LUNs reported lack of space, we found we have some big SnapCenter snapshots occupied a lot of volume space, after we deleted these big snapshots, we see the free space on the volume, but how can i release the free space to the LUNs/datastores?

thanks,

[Ontapforrum]

If the issue is still unresolved, could you share the screenshot of the issue you have described - Showing the space usage for Vol/LUN. Also, let us know the environment details - Thin/Thick, VMware & Ontap version and any other details that would help understand it better.

[ChanceBingen]

Did you delete the snapshots from within SnapCenter? If not, you may have orphaned backup jobs that need cleanup. If so you should open a support case to get that resolved.

[jaikumar · Accepted solution]

If the LUN is thinly provisioned LUN (space reserve set to disabled) , then it supports scsi unmap command and naturally vmware will try reclaim at regular cadence based upon the settings.

In case it is thick LUN then you can convert to thin, lun modify followed by vm data store unmount and remount. 

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vmfs6 have capability to asynchronously reclaim the free space on the vmfs datastore and the frequency at which the unmap needs to be sent to recover the space can be set in vsphere.  And also there are manual ways to recover the space. 
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsphere-storage/GUID-BC1A172C-E649-4812-B8B2-A9E45AC97051.html