Right way to remove a datastore

[MariusRoma]

I am not sure this is the right forumr for my question. If it isn't, can anybody please point me to the right one?

I need to delete two LUNs on a storage (HP LeftHand).

The LUNs host 2 datastores used by a vSphere 5.5 cluster made up of 3 ESXi 5.5 U2 hosts.

I must perform the activity while VMs run and I cannot create any problem neither performance issue to the running VMs.

So I need to create a checklist as accurate and complete as possible...

Here is my checklist:

• I removed all the VMs from the datastores
• I deleted all the files from the datastores
• I removed the datastores from the list of datastores used by HA heartbeat
• I checked that the sacratchconfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation for each node points a datadtore different from the ones I am giung to remove

Can I safely delete the files inside the .vSphere-HA folder?
What else shoud I check before removing the datastore?

Is there anything else I should consider?

Regards

marius

[Srinivasu13]

Hi,

1) Migrate the running VMs from these Datastore's to other Datastores(If VM's not require then straight way delete the VMs from Datastores)

2)Make sure to migrate all required data from these datastores.

3)Delete datastore's from vCenter.

4)Finally remove LUN's visible from storage end for those ESX hosts.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

To properly detach and unmount datatores take a look at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004605.

There's actually nothing that will cause issues. If you are trying to unmount (or delete) a datastore it will either work (if nothing accesses the datastore), or you will receive a warning/error message. Once a datatore is unmounted or deleted, you should detach the LUN(s) from each host, and - after unpresenting the LUN from the Lefthand CMC and running a rescan on the hosts- you may do the cleanup (esxcli storage core device detached remove -d NAA_ID) on the hosts.

André