Verify that the VMs are removed--also click on the VM Templates tab and ensure that there are no VMs reported there. If there are, repeat the Remove from Inventory process for them.
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1) Ensure the virtual machines are full unregistered. |
2) Ensure all templates are unregistered. |
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Once the datastore workloads are cleaned out--put them in maintenance mode. This ensures that no new VMs get placed on them from this point on. Right-click on the datastore, choose Maintenance Mode, then Enter Maintenance Mode.
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1) Choose datastore. |
2) Enabled maintenance mode |
3) Ensure completion. |
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If maintenance mode fails, it means a workload is still active on the datastore. Note this step is not required, but recommended.
The last step is to unmount the datastore--this removes the datastore from inventory of the hosts and vCenter. Right-click on the datastore and click Unmount Datastore. Choose all hosts in the dialog box and click OK.
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1) Right-click datastore |
2) Choose unmount datastore. |
3) Unmount the datastore from all hosts. |
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This will then unmount the datastore from all of the hosts:
The datastore will go to inaccessible in the vSphere Client.
The next step is to detach the volume hosting the datastore. Click on a host, then Configure tab, and Storage Device panel. Select the device hosting the datastore and choose Detach. In newer release of vSphere, this will allow to detach from multiple hosts at once. In older releases you will need to repeat this process for each host that see the datastore.
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1) Choose a host then Configure > Storage Devices. |
2) Select the device and choose Detach |
3) Select all hosts and choose Yes. |
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The datastore will be removed from the list upon the next rescan, or you can perform a manual rescan of the cluster(s) to force the update. You may want to do this to ensure that no host still sees it and it is indeed detached from all existing hosts. If the datastore disappears upon rescan the volume has been completely removed.
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1) Rescan storage on hosts, clusters, or datacenters. |
2) Verify the datastore is no longer listed. |
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Repeat the above process for each VMFS datastore.