vCenter Server may report incorrect datastore usage or free space.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When logged directly onto the ESXi via Host client or CLI the correct space is reported however  when logged into the vCenter Server using vSphere Client the displayed values for the free space & used space may be different or change randomly.

A refresh will update the correct storage space temporarily before the incorrect space is reported again during a later refresh of the metrics. 

Cause

The VPXD process triggers a refresh operation on the datastore once every 30 minutes assuming there are no other disk related operations. However in certain conditions it is possible for stale datastore metrics to be pushed from the host to vCenter which is then entered into the database.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 6.5 U2d. 

 

Workaround:
There is no workaround available.

Additional Information

Due to incorrect reporting Storage DRS may attempt to migrate VMs to datastores that have no space or there may be excessive DRS related actions. Other monitoring solutions may also trigger alerts for incorrect storage usage.