How to find Orphaned VMDK files

[Kumargtk]

How can we find out Orphaned VMDK files in all the Data-stores.

[LucD]

So do I.
Perhaps add a Write-Host to show which ESXi node the script is connecting to?

[formz]

I will take a look at that, good idea. The script did run and output a valid list, so I'll have to do some more digging as to what is throwing the error. Thanks!

[formz]

That was it. When the host was taken out of MM there were no script errors. Strange.

I'm trying to figure out a way to delete just a specified set of VMs based on naming convention that starts with "tc-gt"

I'm thinking it'll be:

Get-DatastoreCluster -Name 'DataStoreClusterName' | Get-Datastore | Get-VM | Where-Object {$._name -like "tc-gt*"} | Remove-OrphanedData -delete

Is it valid to pass Remove-OrphanedData the names of the VMs like that?

Thanks!

[LucD]

I'm afraid not, the function requires a Datastore as argument

[formz]

Ah ok, thanks for the confirmation.

[formz]

One more (seemingly dumb) question - does the script take into account name changes of the VM itself? IE: Rename the VM and obviously it doesn't update the name on the datastore.

[LucD]

Yes, it should.

The script collects the VMDK filenames from the VM itself, so if they do have another name than 'normal', they will still return the actual name

[LucD]

I would be interested to know what the following produces?

That would allow me to further analyse what you suspect might be a flaw in the script.

$vmName = 'VSX'

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

$vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File |

Select Name

[omar13489]

The Output for these lines that give you the whole information about the File Object for VM  :

PowerCLI C:\> $vmName = 'VSX'

PowerCLI C:\> $vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

PowerCLI C:\> $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File |

>> Select Name

>>

Name

----

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX.vmx

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX.vmxf

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX.nvram

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX.vmsd

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-flat.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-000001.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-000001-delta.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-000002.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-000002-delta.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-Snapshot1.vmsn

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-Snapshot2.vmsn

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/vmware-2.log

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/vmware-1.log

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/vmware.log

This means that the File Related to VM, how the script considered it as Orphaned ?

Also the machine is not listed when I check the orphaned machine by :

Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{'RunTime.ConnectionState'='disconnected|inaccessible|invalid|orphaned'}

[LucD]

Excuse me, but the file that was mentioned by the function that you gave as an example, is in a different folder (root) and has a different name.

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX.vmdk

[LucD]

As a matter of fact, you seem to have a bunch of crap files in the root of that datastore.

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX.nvram

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX-Snapshot1.vmsn

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX-000001.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX-000002.vmdk

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX-Snapshot2.vmsn

[Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX.vmx

Unless you knowingly tried to create a VM in the root folder of the datastore, these all look like orphaned files.

Did you at some point forget to put the slash between the VSX VSX?

[omar13489]

how it is located on different folder ?

The File located under this directory :

/vmfs/volumes/56ee729e-9af0d55f-3ffa-1402ec42a460/VSX/

-rw-------    1 root     root         491 Jan 10 09:31 VSX.vmdk

and it has the same name

but ls -lh show the above line!

and the slash was not shown with the the output i attached, the output came from the script

maybe you thought it is located inside root directory because I used "ls -lh" on the ESX ?

without ls -lh , only ls :

ls /vmfs/volumes/56ee729e-9af0d55f-3ffa-1402ec42a460/VSX/ | egrep VSX.vmdk

VSX.vmdk

[LucD]

Open the File browser in the Web client on that datastore.

[omar13489]

Here is the Datastore Browser from vSphere Client

[LucD]

But what is in the root folder?

[LucD]

Are there besides folders any files in the root?

In any case, can you run the following, and attach the report.txt file?

There must be something special with that VM, I can't reproduce what you are seeing.

And which vSphere and PowerCLI version are you using?

$vmName = 'VSX'

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

$vm.ExtensionData.Layout | Out-File C:\Temp\report.txt

$vm.ExtensionData.Layout.Disk | Out-File C:\Temp\report.txt -Append

$vm.ExtensionData.Layout.Snapshot | Out-File C:\Temp\report.txt -Append

$vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | Out-File C:\Temp\report.txt -Append

$vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.Disk | Out-File C:\Temp\report.txt -Append

[omar13489]

No Files inside the datatstore root directory . all of them folders

after running the code segment, attached the report.txt output

[omar13489]

btw , this issue related to All VMs and not this specific VM

[LucD]

I understand, but let's concentrate on one VM to determine the cause.

The problem is in the missing slash in the filepath

Name         : VSX.vmdk

Folder       : [Local_DataStore_51.19] VSXVSX.vmdk

Size         : 0

CapacityKB   : 31457280

Modification : 1/10/2018 9:31:35 AM

Owner        : root

Thin         : True

Extents      : [Local_DataStore_51.19] VSX/VSX-flat.vmdk

DiskType     : VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo

HWVersion    : 11

At the moment I have no idea why this would happen.

Which vSphere version and PowerCLI version are you using?

And in which regional settings are you running? What does Get-Culture say?

To eliminate any copy/paste issues, can you check if the attached copy of the functions comes back with the same results?

[omar13489]

Hi LucD,

VSphere Client Version : 6.0.0, Build : 5112508

PowerCLI Version :

PowerCLI C:\> Get-PowerCLIVersion

PowerCLI Version

----------------

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.3 Release 1 build 3737840

---------------

PowerCLI C:\> Get-Culture

LCID             Name             DisplayName

----             ----             -----------

1033             en-US            English (United States)

and execute the attached function with the same results