"VM to Datastore" map is showing inaccurate data

[sean_carolan]

We have an HA cluster set up with several different datastores, all shared by the hosts in the cluster. On the "VM to Datastore" map I noticed that some hosts had lines connecting them to two different datastores. I assumed this was because the hard disk was on one datastore, while the CD-ROM image was stored on another one. In order to correct this I went through and set all the guest CD-ROMs to "Client Device". While this worked for some guests, others are still showing up as connected to two different datastores.

Anyone have an idea how to correct this? We prefer to have all of each guest's configuration files, etc. stored on the same datastore.

[NTurnbull]

Hi, it is entirely possible for a vm to have disks on different datastores, just go into the vm properties and it will tell you where each disk is stored. there are another couple of possibilities, vm swap file isn't being stored with the vm or less possible, there is a snapshot on a different datastore.

*EDIT: try seeing if you've got a floppy image attached to the vm too! *

Thanks,

Neil

[sean_carolan]

Thanks for your reply, Neil. None of these VMs has either a CD-ROM or floppy on either datastore. They are also all single-disk machines. I suspect that either the swap file or snapshot is what's on the other datastore. Is there a way to check either of these?

EDIT: I checked and none of these VMs has a snapshot associated with it. That leaves only swap as a possibility.

[sean_carolan]

I just checked the cluster settings, which specify that the swapfile should be in the same directory as the virtual machines. So at this point I'm stumped, no idea why Virtual Center seems to think these machines are connected to two different datastores.

[NTurnbull · Accepted solution]

Take a look at one of your vm's with this dual datastore connection and see what files are on which datastores. Also look at the datastore that VC says the vm is located. I've seem this a while ago when you create a new vm and choose to add a virtual disk from another datastore, the vm config files and the snapshot delta files in one datastore and the vmdk on the other (if this is the case!).

If your re-directing your snaps then you'll likely see this other datastore should be referenced in the .vmx file in a config parameter called WorkingDir=

Thanks,

Neil

[sean_carolan]

I believe I have discovered the root cause of this issue. We deploy most of our new VMs from a template. The template has it's CD-ROM configured to use a boot *.iso image on one particular datashare. As the DRS process moves various VMs around the cluster, they still maintain their connection to this datashare.

All of the machines that I corrected earlier are no longer connected to the datashare. It just took some time for the map to catch up to the actual settings.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I'll give you points for your trouble.