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neohal
Contributor
Contributor

Can't delete or unregister orphan VM

Hi ...

Please I need some help in this case. (vSphere 6.0 - VCSA).

I was moving (storage vmotion) a VM and when the vmotion was in 99% (aprox) other admin made a "service restart" in ESXi host because the "VMFS deprecated ..." message in the vCenter screen.

After that the VM was in unspecific state,  we could not power on, power off, unregister ... etc.

I worked and copy the VMDKs file and I could recover the VM with other definition, but in this proces we delete the directory and other files of the original VM.

Now I have in my inventory the VM with an alert and I can't delete it or unregister.

How May I delete this register ?

Do I need to edit the vCenter DB ?   if this is the way ...  How do I do this ?

Thanks for this help ...

Neohal.

8 Replies
rcporto
Leadership
Leadership

Check if helps: VMware KB: Virtual machines appear as invalid or orphaned in vCenter Server

---

Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto
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neohal
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks ... but I tried this recommendations but nothing ...

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JinuV
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Try to login to individual host and delete the unregister orphan VM

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SavkoorSuhas
Expert
Expert

Hello Neohal,

So the VM is appearing as VM_Name(orphaned) correct?

And when we right click this orphaned VM, all options are grayed out?

Or when we unregister or delete do we get any error?

Suhas

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Rubrik

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V_Peter_S
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Greetings,

Just found this kb post:

VMware KB: Deleting an orphaned virtual machine when the Remove option is not available

this worked for me in vSphere6

The other way I have found, not as simple as this, is rebooting the vCSA.

Pete

Esse Quam Videri
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stewie2k
Contributor
Contributor

I had the same issue, the fix vmware gave me was to create a folder place the orphaned vms in that new folder and delete the folder.

This didnt work for me, what did tho was to access the vcenter appliance in vmware workstation 12 with the connect to server option and from there right click the orphaned vm and remove it.

worked a treat hope this helps someone

stuart

Sionitus
Contributor
Contributor

stewie2k,

Your VMware Workstation did the trick for me as well! I had a failed iSCSI datastore with a number of orphaned VMs. What I found odd was that my inaccessible iSCSI datastore was only listed in vCenter because the VMs were referencing it. Once I removed the orphaned VMs the datastore reference also was removed from vCenter! Thanks for the tip!

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WeaverJK2011101
Contributor
Contributor

Resolution that worked for me:

In vCenter 6.5

Right-click the VM > All vCenter Orchestrator plugin Actions > All categorized actions > Remove from Inventory.

 

John K. Weaver - CISSP, CISM, CISA, MCITP-EA, MCITP-VA, MCSE Security, CCNP, CCNA-Security, VCP-DCV, VCP-NV, F5-CA
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