How do I remove a non-existent target ESX server from the vMA list?

[Matt_B1]

I added a couple ESX servers to vMA using "sudo vifp addserver <hostname>". These servers were retired before removing them from vMA. Since they are not online,I get the below message when doing "sudo vifp removeserver <hostname>". How can I remove them from the vMA list of targets? Thanks.

Error: Failed to connect. Please make sure the server is up and is of supported version.

[lamw · Accepted solution]

If you're using the latest version of vMA 4.0, you should be able to do the following:

sudo vifp removeserver <server> --force

When it prompts for password, just type whatever, it should just forcefully remove the host from management.

You could also take a look at the vMA configuration file that keeps track of the hosts under management and clear out the old entries:

/etc/vmware/viconfig/viconfig.xml

/home/vi-admin/.vmware/credstore/vicredentials.xml

Give that a try and see if it helps, it's always best practice to remove from host prior to decommission but generally, option 1 will work from what I've seen.

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[Matt_B1]

The --force argument worked, thanks! I just noticed that futher down in the vMA guide under Target Management commands.

[estereterete]

When I tried

                  vifp removeserver OLD-SERVER  --force

I got, as entries in DNS were already deleted:

                  Error: Unable to resolve hostname.

So I wrote an entry in /etc/hosts pointnig old-server to a real ESX server.