PMEM configured large VM deletion results in a orphaned state in vCenter

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Deletion of Persistent Memory (PMEM) configured VM with large vNVDIMM and/or large PMEM disk(s), takes longer time (>30 minutes).
• This leads to VM appearing as orphaned in the vCenter.

Example: <vm-name> (orphaned)

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

Cause

PMem configured VM with large PMem storage takes longer time to be reclaimed and deleted. Even though the deletion is happening in the storage stack, the frequent update is not passed onto the upper stack. Therefore, when vpx does not get any update of the deletion task for more than 30 minutes, the task is considered a failure and VC considers the VM as orphaned.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, check if the VM is correctly deleted in the host side. If deleted, remove the orphaned VM from the VC inventory.