Knowledge Base

To reduce the size of the vCenter Server database:

1. Ensure that you have a good backup of the vCenter Server database. Do not skip this step.
   
   
2. Shut down the VMware VirtualCenter Server service and any other services (such as VMware VDI or VMware Lab Manager) that use the database. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).
   
   Note: Again, ensure that you have a recent backup of the vCenter Server database before continuing. Do not skip this step.
   
   
3. Truncate the VPX_HIST_STAT1 table and corresponding VPX_SAMPLE_TIME1 table. Once the truncate has completed, verify if the rollup jobs are now completing successfully. For more information, see step 4.
   
   Warning: The truncate function is destructive. VMware highly recommends that a Database Administrator perform this step.
   
   To truncate the tables, execute these SQL statements:
   
   truncate table VPX_HIST_STAT1;
   
   Note: In vCenter Server 5.1, the table name is VPX_HIST_STAT1_n.
   
   truncate table VPX_SAMPLE_TIME1;
   
   Note: To reduce the size of vCenter Server Database, you can also delete the data from the VPX_EVENT, VPX_EVENT_ARG, and VPX_TASK tables. To delete the data from these tables, see Purging old data from the database used by vCenter Server (1025914) or Purging old data from the database used by VirtualCenter 2.x (1000125).
   
   If the rollup jobs do not complete successfully, it may be necessary to truncate the VPX_HIST_STAT2 table, and the corresponding table, VPX_SAMPLE_TIME2. Continue truncating the VPX_HIST_STAT[1-4] tables and corresponding VPX_SAMPLE_TIME[1-4] tables until the rollup jobs are completing successfully.
   
   Note: These additional tables in vCenter Server 4.1 and 5.0 can also be truncated to further reduce the vCenter Server database size. The VPX_TEMPTABLEx tables are a staging/cache area for the performance data before they are processed and moved to VPX_HIST_STAT1.
   
   truncate table VPX_TEMPTABLE0;
truncate table VPX_TEMPTABLE1;
truncate table VPX_TEMPTABLE2;
   
   
4. Run the rollup scripts using these steps:
   
   
   1. Using SQL Management Studio, connect to the SQL database for vCenter Server.
   2. Navigate to SQL Server Agent > Jobs.
   3. Select the individual rollup jobs, right-click and select Start Job at Step.
      
      
5. Start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service and any other service service that you stopped in step 2.

To truncate all performance data from vCenter Server 5.1

Warning: This procedure permanently removes all historical performance data. Ensure to take a backup of the database/schema before proceeding.

1. Stop the VMware VirtualCenter Server service. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).
   
   Note: Ensure that you have a recent backup of the vCenter Server database before continuing. Do not skip this step.
   
   
2. Log in to the vCenter Server database using SQL*Plus (for Oracle) or SQL Management Studio (for SQL Server).
3. Copy and paste the contents of the Oracle_truncate_5.1.sql script attached to this article into SQL*Plus. Alternatively, for SQL Server, copy and paste the contents of the SQL_truncate_5.1.sql script into SQL Management Studio.
4. Execute the script to delete the data.
5. Restart the vCenter Server services.