How to remove an orphaned VM from the disk of a vSAN cluster.

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

After host failure and recovery Orphaned VMs are present in vCenter innovatory panel. 

Environment

VMware vSAN (all versions)

Cause

The VM/VMs exists in the vCenter Servers database but are no longer present in the ESXi hosts inventory. The VM/VMs will then present as orphaned in vCenter.  

Resolution

The VM/VMs need to either be re-registered if possible or removed from inventory if the VM has been deleted from the Datastore.

To re-register a virtual machine, navigate to the VM’s location in the Datastore Browser and re-add the VM to inventory. For more information, see How to register/add a VM to the Inventory in vCenter Server.

To remove an orphaned VM from inventory, right-click the VM and choose “Remove from inventory.”

Reference KB 

Virtual machines appear as invalid or orphaned or inaccessible.