Deleting disks doesn't free up storage

T

The Cageybee

New Member
Oct 4, 2025
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Hi there,
After deleting some VM's/CT's Proxmox isn't freeing up the space they once occupied. This has left me with no more space on the drive.
I have tried searching for a solution to this but none of them are really satifactory.
I can find several random reddit posts where people suggest typing random things in into the command line or running some random script but I'm really not happy doing this as it's never a good idea to just issue commands from some sketchy post without knowing what it's really doing or what the implications are. That's how you end up with an unstable or insecure system.
I have seen some posts saying something about running a trim command or running garbage collection, some say to do it within promox while others say to do it withing the VM (which is impossible as the VM is gone).

I've seen other posts stating to select some option, presumably within the Proxmox front end, that will deal with this situation but don't state where to find them and for the life of me I can't find anything even closely resembeling what they describe.

So, can someone point me towards some official documentation as to why this behavior happening and how I can solve it.

I'm just dabbling here so some of my terminology may be incorrect, but I'll try to describe as best I can how the disks are setup.
Basically, I'm not doing anything fancy so it's just a very straight forward setup.

proxmox.png
promox2.pngproxmox3.pngproxmox4.png

Sorry about all the screenshots I just thought it would be easier than me stumbling around trying to describe my setup.

For what it's worth I've always found Proxmox to be quite honestly amazing as other than this issue it's really staight forward to use with a fully featured front end. That's kinda why I'm thrown here because I've not had to do anything within the command line up to this point.

Many thanks,
The Cageybee
 
Welcome, The Cageybee!
You are absolutely right when you prefer not to use any uncertain scripts / tools :) .

Please run in the shell of the PVE host the following commands:
pvesm status
pvesm list local-lvm
lvs
qm list
pct list
and post the results using the CODE tags to preserve the formatting.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your help with this.


Code: 
root@pve:~# pvesm status
connection check for storage 'OMV' failed - session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE

  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
Name             Type     Status           Total            Used       Available        %
OMV              cifs   inactive               0               0               0    0.00%
local             dir     active        69678320        35476468        30616624   50.91%
local-lvm     lvmthin     active       144089088       131394839        12694248   91.19%

Code: 
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 34009907200 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2793930752 while the size is only 1572864000.
Volid                   Format  Type             Size VMID
local-lvm:vm-100-disk-0 raw     images    34359738368 100
local-lvm:vm-102-disk-0 raw     images    10737418240 102
local-lvm:vm-103-disk-0 raw     images     8589934592 103
local-lvm:vm-104-disk-0 raw     rootdir    2147483648 104
local-lvm:vm-105-disk-0 raw     rootdir    8589934592 105
local-lvm:vm-106-disk-0 raw     rootdir    8589934592 106
local-lvm:vm-108-disk-1 raw     rootdir    1572864000 108
local-lvm:vm-109-disk-0 raw     images        4194304 109
local-lvm:vm-109-disk-1 raw     images    42949672960 109

Code: 
root@pve:~# lvs
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 31.67 GiB while the size is only 8.00 GiB.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2.60 GiB while the size is only 1.46 GiB.
  LV            VG  Attr       LSize   Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  data          pve twi-aotz-- 137.41g             91.19  4.12                          
  root          pve -wi-ao----  68.07g                                                  
  swap          pve -wi-ao----  <7.60g                                                  
  vm-100-disk-0 pve Vwi-a-tz--  32.00g data        92.42                                
  vm-102-disk-0 pve Vwi-a-tz--  10.00g data        42.51                                
  vm-103-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   8.00g data        97.69                                
  vm-104-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   2.00g data        98.84                                
  vm-105-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   8.00g data        100.00                                
  vm-106-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   8.00g data        97.16                                
  vm-108-disk-1 pve Vwi-aotz--   1.46g data        100.00                                
  vm-109-disk-0 pve Vwi-a-tz--   4.00m data        14.06                                
  vm-109-disk-1 pve Vwi-a-tz--  40.00g data        99.09

Code: 
root@pve:~# qm list
      VMID NAME                 STATUS     MEM(MB)    BOOTDISK(GB) PID      
       100 Lubuntu24.04         stopped    2048              32.00 0        
       102 LAMPServer           stopped    1024              10.00 0        
       103 openmediavault       running    1024               8.00 1131    
       109 Win10                stopped    4096              40.00 0

Code: 
root@pve:~# pct list
VMID       Status     Lock         Name              
104        running                 adguard            
105        running                 jellyfin          
106        running                 nextcloudpi        
108        running                 qbittorrent


I think a lot of those errors above are caused by me resizing some of the partitions. Whilst it's throwing errors here the underlying VMs/CTs are functioning perfectly.

Just a couple of days ago I removed a Home Assistant VM which was 101 that had a 50gig disk. I'm a little thrown by the fact that when all added up together it come to roughly 114GB but with the home assistant VM that would have been 164GB while the actual drive is 147GB and about 134GB of space is used. Basically, none of these numbers seem to add up or concur.

Also I should note that the Home Assistant disk was originally 32GB but ran out of space so I increased it to 50GB. The home Assistant VM kinda died as it ran out of storage and still didn't function after increasing it's size (kinda understandable I guess but seemed worth a shot at the time).

I've since moved HA to another machine where it's running bare metal.
 
Last edited:
I ran 'pct fstrim' on the 105 and 108 and it's freed up a little space, about 4GB.
This has changed the output of the above commands run but is still throwing errors.

Code: 
root@pve:~# pvesm status
connection check for storage 'OMV' failed - session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE

  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
Name             Type     Status           Total            Used       Available        %
OMV              cifs   inactive               0               0               0    0.00%
local             dir     active        69678320        35476452        30616640   50.91%
local-lvm     lvmthin     active       144089088       127547660        16541427   88.52%

Code: 
root@pve:~# pvesm list local-lvm
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps 30447370240 while the size is only 8589934592.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps 2424635392 while the size is only 1572864000.
Volid                   Format  Type             Size VMID
local-lvm:vm-100-disk-0 raw     images    34359738368 100
local-lvm:vm-102-disk-0 raw     images    10737418240 102
local-lvm:vm-103-disk-0 raw     images     8589934592 103
local-lvm:vm-104-disk-0 raw     rootdir    2147483648 104
local-lvm:vm-105-disk-0 raw     rootdir    8589934592 105
local-lvm:vm-106-disk-0 raw     rootdir    8589934592 106
local-lvm:vm-108-disk-1 raw     rootdir    1572864000 108
local-lvm:vm-109-disk-0 raw     images        4194304 109
local-lvm:vm-109-disk-1 raw     images    42949672960 109

Code: 
root@pve:~# lvs
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-105-disk-0 maps <28.36 GiB while the size is only 8.00 GiB.
  WARNING: Thin volume pve/vm-108-disk-1 maps <2.26 GiB while the size is only 1.46 GiB.
  LV            VG  Attr       LSize   Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  data          pve twi-aotz-- 137.41g             88.52  4.07                           
  root          pve -wi-ao----  68.07g                                                   
  swap          pve -wi-ao----  <7.60g                                                   
  vm-100-disk-0 pve Vwi-a-tz--  32.00g data        92.42                                 
  vm-102-disk-0 pve Vwi-a-tz--  10.00g data        42.51                                 
  vm-103-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   8.00g data        97.69                                 
  vm-104-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   2.00g data        98.84                                 
  vm-105-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   8.00g data        100.00                                 
  vm-106-disk-0 pve Vwi-aotz--   8.00g data        97.16                                 
  vm-108-disk-1 pve Vwi-aotz--   1.46g data        100.00                                 
  vm-109-disk-0 pve Vwi-a-tz--   4.00m data        14.06                                 
  vm-109-disk-1 pve Vwi-a-tz--  40.00g data        99.09
 
First of all: have backups :) .

About Home Assistant VM: you probably overprovisioned the disk (thin LVM makes it possible and it's OK as long as you pay attention to NOT occupy more space in all VMs and containers (in sum) than the thin LVM has).

As you wrote: some of the warnings may come from resizing partitions and I don't precisely know what was done before.

I've searched the forum and I've found that command fstrim -v / inside a VM may help (I think that fstrim -a -v is OK as well (check man fstrim first)). Though I don't know if you have this command in your containers available.

I have also read that making a backup of the VM / container and then restoring from the backup can correct these warnings.

I think that once there are no warnings, one can investigate your main issue :).
 
Thanks for the help guys.

Originally the HA vm had a 32GB disk but it ran out of space and refused to boot.

I tried the fs trim commands above but still get the same errors.

TBH I think that fstrim is a bit of a red herring. The filesystems are all okay and being reported as as their correct sizes it just seems that some where within proxmox the tables for the disks didn't get updated for some reason and that's what needs fixing. Essentially it's a referencing issue rather than a file system issue.
 
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