Datastore deletion help

[lcarter0183]

Ok, I admit that I did this the wrong way to start with, but I got ahead of myself quite a bit. Instead of searching and finding the correct steps to deleting a datastore from vcenter, I removed the only VM that was attached to the datastore and then went to my SAN and deleted the volume that the datastore was on.

Is there any way that I can still delete the datastore from vcenter? Does it matter at this point whether I can or can't delete it? The datastore just shows up now as inactive and there are obviously no files in the datastore.

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

You'll have to detach the block device that represented this datastore and rescan your hosts. It's quite possible you'll have to reboot each as well. BTW, I recently published an article which does outline the proper steps to remove a datastore here and so maybe it'll help you in the future.

[lcarter0183]

Forgive me for being dumb, but what exactly do you mean "detach the block device"? Are you referring to my SAN? So basically I need to restart my whole system?

[lcarter0183]

Ok, nevermind. All I had to do is rescan the datastores and the deleted datastore is now gone

[daphnissov]

Then the LUN was in PDL condition since you said you deleted it directly from the array, so rescan is all you would have to do. Otherwise, you'd likely have to reboot.