Properly deleting a datastore that is being used for HA and has the .vSphere-HA folder on it

[jlaco]

Is there a best way to delete a datastore that is being used for HA and has the .vSphere-HA folder on it?  Since there are two datastores used per host for the datastore heartbeating, I wouldn't think that deleting the datastore would trigger an HA failover but just want to confirm.

Thanks in advance for any info on this!

[AndySimmons]

You shouldn't see an HA failover (assuming all is well with network communication between the relevant vmk interfaces, you could theoretically pull both HA heartbeat datastores if desired), but APD scenarios are something to be aware of. Cormac Hogan has a good writeup here:

Best Practice: How to correctly remove a LUN from an ESX host | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs

[Gortee]

Jlaco,

I have done this more than a few times.  A few items to consider. 

• Make sure you have at least two other datastores shared with the cluster
• Remember that datastore clusters are not used as a primary method for HA they are a backup method.  So unless your networking gateway heartbeating has failed they will not even be used. 

So the process is as follows:

• Check your HA settings and make sure you have not forced the datastore heartbeats to a specific datastore (like the one you want to remove)
• Unmount the drive.  If used for HA it will fail the first time unmount again
• Delete the LUN once unmounted
• Check to make sure HA looks ok by visiting the HA settings for datastore heartbeat and confirm it has moved to a new store.

Thanks,

J