Identify Zombie / Orphaned disks in the datastore using VMware Aria Operations in order to reclaim space.

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)
• VMware Aria Operations 8.x
• VMware Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations) 8.x

Issue/Introduction

• The article explains how to identify 'Missing / Orphaned disks' using VMware Aria Operations to clear up datastore storage space utilization.

Environment

VMware Aria Operations 8.x

Resolution

To identify & delete Zombie / Orphaned disks in datastores using VMware Aria Operations:

1. Navigate to VMware Aria Operations > Capacity > Reclaim > Select a datacenter to investigate.

   • Tabular representation of the Powered OFF VMs, Idle VMs, Snapshots, and Orphaned disks in the selected datacenter are shown.

     

2. To get a list of VMDKs detected as orphaned, Click on Orphaned Disks > "Export All".

   • VMware Aria Operations reports orphaned VMDKs conservatively.

   • There might be a false positive situation when the used VMDK is reported as orphaned, particularly if the VMDK is located on a datastore which is shared among multiple VCs, while not all the VCs are monitored by VMware Aria Operations.

   • Check the accuracy of the VMDK reported as an orphaned disk, and then perform a reclamation.

3. There is no way to delete/reclaim/remove these orphaned disks directly from the VMware Aria Operations GUI. The orphaned disks in the list must be manually validated from the vSphere Client's datastore browser.

   1. Validate with internal Virtual Machine team regarding the VMDK file, as the VMs to which the disks were attached might have a different name or renamed.

   2. Delete the VMDK only after validating that the disks are not in use. It can also be possible that the VMDKs belong to clones/templates which may have been unregistered for some reason. Thus consult with the internal VM teams before deleting the orphaned VMDKs.

 

Note:

• There is no metrics in the Aria Operations with which it is possible to identify with 100% accuracy that the disk is orphaned. Manual verification is needed before deleting.

• The analytics engine does a periodic call to vCenter adapter, and vCenter adapter returns the list of potentially orphaned disks.

• Reclamation settings can be adjusted via VMware Aria Operations > Capacity > Reclaim > Settings.

Additional Information

For more details refer - VMware Aria Operations - Using Reclaim to Free Up Resources.