Can't delete datastore - vsantraces locked by host that doesnt exist anymore

[matt948]

I'm trying to remove a datastore that has vsantraces on it. I cant delete the datastore, I just get the "file system is busy. Correct the problem and retry the operation." error.

So I go to a host and run vmkfstools -D to get the mac address of the host that has a lock.

~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/datastore/vsantraces/vsantraces--2015-04-08T21h51m48s875.gz

Lock [type 10c00001 offset 40042496 v 3, hb offset 3821568

gen 43, mode 1, owner 5525a2d1-f6ca4164-6c60-0024817e2f35 mtime 795

num 0 gblnum 0 gblgen 0 gblbrk 0]

Addr <4, 36, 0>, gen 2, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 644

len 89551, nb 1 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 1, zla 1, bs 8388608

Then I run a PowerCLI script to find the host that has that mac address.

$na = Get-Datastore datastore | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -Physical

$na | ? { $_.Mac -like "*2f:35" } | Select VMHost

But none are returned. I have used this process before for both vsantraces and vmkdump locks and it has always worked.

I did a lookup on that MAC address and it belongs to an HP server. We don't have any HP servers connected to this datastore anymore. Only Cisco servers.

So it seems like there is a lock, but the host is gone. So is there any way to release the lock now since I cant stop vsantraced?

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Already check this:

VMware KB: Unmounting a datastore used for Host Cache on ESXi 5.5 fails with the error: Cannot unmou...

Cannot remove datastore * because file system is busy. | Virten.net

[matt948]

Hey Richardson, both of those fixes require that you can get onto the server that has the lock, but the UUID of the lock doesn't match any of the servers attached to the storage. I believe it to be from a host that was decommissioned a few months ago.

[matt948]

I figured it out. There was a rogue host that was not in vCenter. This host had been decommissioned but not powered off. It didn't even have a network connection, but still had a connection to storage! Once I powered it off I was able to remove the datastore.