Issue with Datastore after deleting a VM (ESXi5.5 / vSphere Client 5.5)

[ccoursey]

Hi,

I currently have an Ubuntu guest installed on a 120GB datastore (~104GB total = datastore1) on a single host machine - allocated as a 30GB hard disk.  This has been running for several weeks now with no issues.   I then created a VM for Windows today on datastore 1 - allocated onto a 64GB hard disk.  I screwed up on some of the initial parameters for the Windows VM and decided to delete this VM (Right Click on VM -> Delete from Disk) and start all over.  When re-provisioning the Windows VM, datastore1 now has around 9GB as available space - far short of the 64GB I planned to provision for the new Windows guest OS.

When looking at the ESXCLI storage filesystems, it shows datastore1, datastore2 (used also by the Ubuntu guest, but fully allocated), and four un-named (i.e. no Volume Names) vfat volumes.  It also shows datastore1 with ~9GB free.

How do I reclaim the "lost/stranded" space from datastore1 caused by the VM provisionin/deletion without disrupting the Ubuntu installation?  I have tried rebooting the host thus far with no resolve.

Thanks in advance for your insight and assistance!

Clint

[ThompsG]

Hi Clint,

Wondering if you could use the Datastore browser from your vSphere Client and see what is on "datastore1"? This should show you if you have any left over bits from the removal of the Windows guest.

Kind regards.

[ccoursey]

ThompsG,

Thanks for the reply.  Using the Datastore Browser as you suggested, I was able to see that the Windows VM was still allocated on datastore1.

I apologize once again for the lack of knowledge and experience - this is all new for me (not a server/VM/software guy by trade).  Thanks for the Lesson!

For future reference, is this typical to have to delete the datastore allocation separately (after deleting the VM)?

Clint

[ThompsG]

Hi Clint,

No worries - will try to be gentle with you

Firstly when you selected "Delete from Disk" this is exactly what it should have done. If you selected "Remove from Inventory" then this de-registers the VM however leaves all the files on disk.

If the "Delete from Disk" option was definitely selected then another possibility is that you had a virtual disk previously associated with this VM but was "Removed from virtual machine" as per the below screenshot:

To see which confirm what option was possibility selected, double click on the folder from within the Datastore browser and see what files you have in there. If you have a number of files like *.vmx, *.nvram, *.vmdk then the "Remove from Inventory" option was selected and the easiest way to proceed would be to re-register the VM by right-clicking on the *.vmx file and selecting Add to Inventory. Once added you can then do the Delete from Disk option again :smileylaugh:

If you only see a VMDK file in here then we need to make sure this is not associated with your other VM and then it will be "safe" to delete from the disk using the Datastore browser.

Is this as clear as mud?