VMs still show up on the source datastore in vSphere Client post successful Storage vMotion

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Storage vMotion of the VMs succeed without any errors.
• However when viewing the source datastore from the datastores view, the VMs show up under the datastore.
• Multiple Storage vMotions do not fix this issue.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

• The VMs had their CD-ROM mapped to an ISO file on the source datastore.
• Even though the CD-ROM was disconnected in the VM Settings, the mapping was present in the VMX file, which caused  this issue.

Resolution

Change the VM's CD-ROM configuration to "Client Device"

Additional Information

For other potential causes of unrelated data stores appearing, please refer to: An unrelated datastore is listed at "Related Objects" tile in virtual machine summary tab.

Reference document: vSphere Virtual Machine Administration