How to remove a Hard disk or RDM from a powered on virtual machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to remove hard disk / RDM while a virtual machine is powered on.
• Unable to power on a suspended virtual machine.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x

Cause

A locking mechanism ensures that no two virtual machines (VM) can access the same disk and perform I/O at same time. This mechanism prevents hard disks from being removed from a powered on VM.

Removing an RDM from a powered on running VM is dependent on the Guest OS.  Refer to the OS vendor for guidance on performing hot add/remove of an RDM.

Resolution

To remove a hard disk or RDM from a virtual machine, the VM must be powered off.

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
3. Select the Hard disk you wish to remove.
4. An X icon will appear on the right side of the selected line (DO NOT select Remove files option).
5. Click on the X icon to remove the disk.
6. Press OK.

For information on migrating a RDM between virtual machines, see Moving an existing RDM to a different virtual machine (broadcom.com)

Additional Information

• Removing a harddisk from a virtual machine through the vSphere client does not release the desired space. (broadcom.com)