how to delete datastore or host that won't go away

[NLNicky]

I am trying to delete some datastores so that I can use the underlying volumes (SAN LUNs) to build a new datastore. I deleted the datastores, but instead of going away and those drives becoming available, they are now greyed out and say (inactive). I am guessing that they are inactive instead of going away because one of the host machines in the cluster was down when I deleted the datastores. It died and now shows as (disconnected). I also can't figure out how to make it go away.

Am I right that if I can make the dead host go away then the deleted datastores will go away? If so, how can I do that? I'm using ESXi 5.1 and vCenter 5.5.

[daphnissov]

This is the process you should have used to cleanly remove that datastore.

How to Cleanly Remove a vSphere Datastore

[NLNicky]

Ok, thank you. So, I see that part of the process is unmounting/detaching the LUN from each host. But one host I can't since it's dead.

The article says that once the LUN has been detached and rescan was run, then the storage administrator can unpresent the storage. I don't want it unpresented though. I want to create a new datastore with all three LUNs as extents to the one datastore. There are currently LUNs available for new storage that are mounted/attached. So, I can see that I'll want the LUNs in the mounted/attached state. I'm concerned that if I unmount, then I won't be able to get back to mounted. Or maybe it will require a reboot or something. Should I still unmount? And again, what about the dead host that still shows each LUN mounted?

[NLNicky · Accepted solution]

Yep, it was the stuck host. Someone helped me figure out how to delete the host: drag it out of the cluster. Select the "edit" menu (in "fat client") and select remove. That removed the host from vCenter and then the deleted datastores went away and the LUNs became available to add to another datastore.