Remove datastore from one esxi host only

[ratease]

Hi,

We are running vSphere 5.1 with 3 hosts in a cluster and a single ESXi host as a standalone - all four managed through vCenter.

To simplify the setup let's say we have 3 LUNs on the same storage presented to ALL the above esxi hosts. All 3 LUNs are running Storage I/O and Datastore Clustering.

I now want to remove LUN 1 and LUN 2 from the standalone host only. How do I do that? When I select either Detach og Unmount from vCenter, I get a dialog telling me that the datastores are used with I/O and Cluster, so I can't click OK to continue!

The standalone has no VMs on LUN 1 and 2.

Any ideas? The important thing is to keep LUN 1 and 2 connected to the 3 clustered hosts at all times - and they are (and will continue to) using I/O control and datastore clustering.

I don't know why this isn't possible, but the only solution I see is to remove the zoning for the standalone host in our storage switches, and then do a rescan on the host. I just remember reading somewhere that it isn't the "right" way to do it, and that the datastores will linger in the host config afterworths which will generate a bunch of error messages etc.

Any help appreciated

/Rasmus

[vJJSosa]

Hello,

  I think that the only solution is removing the Lun Masking, don't touch the Zonning!

  If you remove the zone, the LUN3 will disappear too. You need to modify the lun masking in the Storage Device in order to only remove LUN1 y 2.

About the impact in the host... i don't know if is possible to do something in this scenario, your logs maybe will show you how the host is always looking for these Luns...

Regards

[TheEsp]

Hi ratease

Get the LUN ID from under the storage adapters info and the go into your storage array tools and remove that LUN ID from the hosts you don't want access to it.

David

[ratease]

Isn't that the same as removing it from the zoning, and doesn't it still leave the host unaware of why the storage dissappeared?

/Rasmus

[TheEsp]

Hi Ratease

No zoning is removing access via the servers WWNs doing this will not remove the LUN/Datastore

You will just loose one path to your ESX host

Cheers

David

[ratease]

Hi David,

What I mean is: If I remove access through our storage management, the ESXi server will not have a clue why the storage disappeared. Hence it will start generating errors etc. - just like when you remove the zoning.

I believe the "correct" way of removing the storage is thorugh vCenter somehow. I might be wrong though, but according to this article, simply removing access to datastores without the ESXi server "knowing" about it, will cause troubles...:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200460...

/Rasmus

[Rubeck]

ratease wrote:

Hi David,

What I mean is: If I remove access through our storage management, the ESXi server will not have a clue why the storage disappeared. Hence it will start generating errors etc. - just like when you remove the zoning.

I believe the "correct" way of removing the storage is thorugh vCenter somehow. I might be wrong though, but according to this article, simply removing access to datastores without the ESXi server "knowing" about it, will cause troubles...:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200460...

/Rasmus

IMO, I would mask those LUNs on the ESXi side. This would stop the host from polling and worrying about these.. http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009449

Held og lykke /Good luck

/Rubeck

[ratease]

Spoke to VMware support and the solution was to open a vSphere Client directly to the ESXi host instead of the vCenter. Then unmount and detach every LUN on by one, then remove the host/datastore mapping in the storage management software and THEN do a rescan on the host connected with vSphere Client to the vCenter.

/Rasmus

[vJJSosa]

Hi,

  Did you apply this procedure with direct access to the host? Thanks for share with us,

Regards

[ratease]

Yes