Determining which replica disk is used for a linked clone virtual machine

Purpose

This article provides information to determine which linked clones are associated to a replica virtual machine.

To determine which linked clones are associated to a replica virtual machine:

From the ESX console:

Log into the ESX host as root. In ESXi connect to the console, press Alt + F1 and type unsupported.
Run the command:
find /vmfs/volumes/ ( -size -1500c ) -name *.vmdk -exec grep replica {} -H ; | grep ‘parentFileNameHint=’ > replicalist.txt
Run the command:sed s/:/’–>>’/ < replicalist.txt >replicalist2.txt
Run the command:less replicalist2.txtThe output is similar to:/vmfs/volumes/4cceb02c-6fba721c-a0ff-001e0b1f4ca2/test-2/test-2.vmdk–>>parentFileNameHint=”/vmfs/volumes/4cceb02c-6
fba721c-a0ff-001e0b1f4ca2/replica-8581f32c-a851-448e-8ea8-/replica-8581f32c-a851-448e-8ea8-.vmdk”
/vmfs/volumes/4cceb02c-6fba721c-a0ff-001e0b1f4ca2/test-1/test-1.vmdk–>>parentFileNameHint=”/vmfs/volumes/4cceb02c-6
fba721c-a0ff-001e0b1f4ca2/replica-8581f32c-a851-448e-8ea8-/replica-8581f32c-a851-448e-8ea8-.vmdk”

The Linked Clone virtual machines and the replicas are separated by –>>. The Linked Clone desktops are to the left and the replica is to the right. In addition to Pool Desktops, other virtual machines are also listed.

The replica name shown in vCenter Server is longer than the folder name and .vmdk name in the datastore.

For example:
- vCenter Server name – replica-ae5923a9-4991-41e7-ba03-07c61429d839
- vmdk name – replica-ae5923a9-4991-41e7-ba03-.vmdk