Those are some BIG log files you have there buddy!
Sometimes a well run, stable production environment that runs and runs and runs is hiding some hidden dangers from you. My client was recently doing some housekeeping on their shared storage and came across some larger than normal Virtual Machine log files.
By default, these log files normally will get rotated out when a VM is powered off/on or vMotion’d. For machines that do neither and just run happily in production, you could have instances where the log files could grow much more than you expect. By default, VMware will keep 6 rotations of log files but each log file is enabled for unlimited growth (or until the LUN is consumed!). For machines that have lots of login/logoff activities (think Terminal services / Citrix machines), you might want to consider reviewing the current logging options.
As a refresher, here is the KB article to brush up on your logging options.
You can safely delete the older vmware-x.log files without issue but sometimes will run into issues deleting the current active log file. The VM will need to be powered off or vMotion’d to access that log file. It’s also worth mentioning that you should take a moment or two to investigate the contents to make sure the log spew is normal and you aren’t missing something that should/could be addressed.
For machines that are generating large log files with benign messaging, you might want to consider turning off logging for those VMs.
To turn logging to off, enter logging=false in the virtual machines .vmx file
Happy Logging!
-Carlo