vCenter showing vm present in two datastores (one showing used space 0.00 B of 12.66 GB)

[gd7]

I have a couple of VMs which according to vCenter are present in multiple datastores. In all cases one datastore would be showing used space 0.00 B of xx.xx GB.

Is there a way to fix this? All I can think of is that at some point the VM could have been migrated from one datastore to another. It's never been renamed; one of the datastores holds no files as below...

vCenter 5.5.0 2183111

ESXi 5.5.0 2456374

latest vm hardware compatibility and tools.

This is what is visible on the summary page for the VM:

but if you examine both datastores - the VM is only present in datastore 4:

~ # ls -la /vmfs/volumes/ESXi1-datastore4/dc1

total 13286440

drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          4480 Mar 25 08:34 .

drwxr-xr-t    1 root     root          1820 Mar 23 10:17 ..

-rw-------    1 root     root     134344704 Mar  6 18:42 dc1-000001-delta.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root           310 Mar  6 18:38 dc1-000001.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root     1895952384 Mar 24 15:16 dc1-000002-delta.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root           343 Mar 24 15:03 dc1-000002.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root      50458624 Mar 25 09:14 dc1-000003-delta.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root           317 Mar 25 08:34 dc1-000003.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root      16904192 Mar 24 15:17 dc1-000004-delta.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root           317 Mar 24 15:17 dc1-000004.vmdk

-rw-------    1 root     root         28969 Mar  6 12:35 dc1-Snapshot1.vmsn

-rw-------    1 root     root         29000 Mar  6 18:47 dc1-Snapshot2.vmsn

-rw-------    1 root     root         32015 Mar 24 15:17 dc1-Snapshot3.vmsn

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           120 Mar 24 15:17 dc1-aux.xml

-rw-------    1 root     root     2147483648 Mar 25 08:34 dc1-bbbf052e.vswp

-rw-------    1 root     root     64424509440 Mar  6 12:35 dc1-flat.vmdk

-rwx------    1 root     root        290136 Mar 24 15:17 dc1-vss_manifests3.zip

-rw-------    1 root     root          8684 Mar 25 08:35 dc1.nvram

-rw-------    1 root     root           540 Mar  6 11:01 dc1.vmdk

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          1245 Mar 24 15:17 dc1.vmsd

-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          3536 Mar 25 08:34 dc1.vmx

-rw-------    1 root     root             0 Mar 25 08:34 dc1.vmx.lck

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          3258 Mar 24 15:17 dc1.vmxf

-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          3535 Mar 25 08:34 dc1.vmx~

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        554141 Mar  6 12:35 vmware-3.log

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        225262 Mar  6 18:36 vmware-4.log

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        160708 Mar  6 18:42 vmware-5.log

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        219307 Mar 16 11:21 vmware-6.log

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        245326 Mar 24 15:17 vmware-7.log

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        214032 Mar 24 16:19 vmware-8.log

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        192487 Mar 25 08:35 vmware.log

-rw-------    1 root     root     114294784 Mar 25 08:34 vmx-dc1-3149858094-1.vswp

datastore 3 holds nothing and I am certain this VM has never been renamed etc.

~ # ls -la /vmfs/volumes/ESXi1-datastore3/dc1

ls: /vmfs/volumes/ESXi1-datastore3/dc1: No such file or directory

[brunofernandez1]

is there a ISO mounted? if yes, you see the datastore in the summery where de iso is located

[gd7]

Thanks Bruno,

I would have used an ISO to install the OS and yes ISOs are stored in a folder in datastore3, but there is not one presently mounted so not sure why that data store is still being listed...

[brunofernandez1]

on the CD Drive you have to select Client Device. Is it selected? have a look on my print screen

[gd7]

yes. client device is selected.

[sarcyn]

You probably have a snapshot with a mounted ISO.

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Based on the list of files, your VM is running from snapshot and maybe the state of virtual machine before take the snapshot was using the ISO on the old datastore. If you can, try removing the snapshot and the reference to the old datastore will be removed.

[gd7]

thanks. deleting the old snapshots did the trick indeed.

[JosephPJ]

Thanks to brunofernandez1

on the CD Drive you have to select Client Device.

[Gopal_T]

Hi All, the VM is showing 2 datastore in vCenter.

This due to below reasons.

1. VM was mounted CD/DVD and migrated to other datastore\host

2. Without removing snapshot, the VM was migrated

3. VM is running with old HW version (below 10)

Solution: Try the below option one by one

1. Remove the CD/DVD drive from VM and change to Client Device

2. Remove the snapshot completely then migrate the VM

3. Try to upgrade VM compatibility and  check the Hardware version or change the HW version manually. 

4. The final option is VM clone.

Thanks All..