Why are these folder names hashed in the Datastore

[Enmity2]

Quick Question, Why do we have so many folders in the Datastore that are Hashed.  And can I delete them?  I have folders that are named the proper VM name, but there's tons of hashed folders.

Thank you for your response.

[a_p_]

Although a vSAN datastore shows up as a folder structure, it really is isn't. With vSAN virtual disks etc. are stored as objects with object IDs.

André

Moderator note: Discussion moved to VMware vSAN Discussions

[TheBobkin]

@Enmity2, These are not 'Hashed' these are vSAN Object UUIDs which correlate with the namespace Objects (VM 'folders') stored on the vsanDatastore - if you cd into one of them they will contain your VMs configuration and descriptor data as files (e.g. .vmx, .vmdk, .vmsd, .vswp etc.), so NO do not delete these.

The fact that you see for instance 1234abcd-1234-abcd-1234-12344321abcd which contains the VM descriptors for VM123 while also seeing a 'folder' called VM123 is actually because the 'folder' VM123 is actually just a symlink to 1234abcd-1234-abcd-1234-12344321abcd (and doubly so why you shouldn't delete them).

Do you have some need for clearing out some space on your vsanDatastore?

If so then there are multiple things to check but deleting your needed VM namespaces is not the way to do this.