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klee222
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Find VM that not in vcenter - (removed from inventory)

Hi,  currently i'm doing house keeping on VC and i believe there is some VM which did't not in use or ADD to inventory.

this vm i believe still keep in some datastore without using, is the anyway to find out all VM which not in use on VC? (not added to inventory)

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klee222
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Hi Finikiez

i manage to find it out with LucD script

http://www.lucd.info/2011/04/25/orphaned-files-and-folders-spring-cleaning/

also your RV tools helping me to verify too by compare manually from the LucD script.

thanks you so much

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Finikiez
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Hi!

RVTools shows VMs disks which are not assigned to any VM in Inventory.

As well you can use 'find' command in ESXi CLI to search files if you know their names.

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klee222
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Hi

How or where should i run RV tools to export all VM (include not  present to inventory but in datastore?)

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Finikiez
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RVTools is a Windows application. You need to download it and install on a machine which has IP connectivity with your vcenter. It can be any admin's desktop.

Here the link to download https://www.robware.net/rvtools/

Check blog post from Vladan https://www.vladan.fr/how-to-find-orphaned-virtual-disks-in-your-esx-server-environement/  about "Zombie vmdks"

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klee222
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Hi

I Just download and run the RV tool by connect to Vc, but the output is only for vm which are presented.

i'm looking someway to export all vm (include those are not presented to Vc but exist in datastore, this is some user just remove from inventory but not delete it)

>< "

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Finikiez
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Again.

VM which is deleted from inventory this is just bunch of files on a file system. VC and ESXi are not aware of 'VM' in this context.

You need to look for vmdk files which are not assigned to any existing in inventory VMs.

This will help you identify potential folders with other files (vmx, logs and etc)

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klee222
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Hi

kindly please guide how do i find the by vmdk or any other method?

many thanks

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Finikiez
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As I wrote RVTools can show you VMDKs which are not attached to any existing VM in VC inventory. You need to look into 'vHealth' tab and check errors about zombie vmdk.

It will show you a path to vmdk.

After that go to a folder on datastore and check it for other existing files (first to check is vmx file with VM configuration)

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klee222
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Hi Finikiez

i manage to find it out with LucD script

http://www.lucd.info/2011/04/25/orphaned-files-and-folders-spring-cleaning/

also your RV tools helping me to verify too by compare manually from the LucD script.

thanks you so much

klee222
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Hi Finikiez

I have run the RVtools and i saw there are a lot of file mark with "Zombie"

Questuion, can these file to to be deleted ? any effect ? how to confirm if it was not in-use ?

RDMP.vmdk

RDM.vmdk

Delta.cmdk

FLAT.vmdk

VM1.vmx

pastedImage_0.png

many thanks

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Finikiez
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Files like RDMP.vmdk and  RDM.vmd are pointer files from RDM disks.

delta.vmdk - it's a snapshot vmdk.

flat vmdk - it's a virtual disk itself with data.

vmx - it's a configuration file which describes VM HW configuration.

I recommend to check existing virtual machines with similar names to see if anybody knows about this files. For sure you can copy files somewhere else, keep them for several time and delete them after that )

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