vVol object mapped to virtual disk of a linked clone VM may not be deleted in certain workflows even after deleting linked clone VM.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Issue/Introduction

For a linked clone VM on a VVOL datastore, the base vVol object mapped to the virtual-disk is not deleted on the storage array, even after the linked clone VM delete operation successfully completes.

Environment

vSphere 7.X, 8.X, 9.X

Cause

This arises if the linked clone VM had snapshots which were deleted via API call, with the consolidate disks option set to false within the API call. 

(Snapshot deletion from the UI always consolidates disks. In the delete snapshot API call, disk consolidation is must be specified as an argument.)

Resolution

For linked clone VMs on vVol datastore always enable disk consolidation when deleting the snapshots.

Additional Information



Sample Steps to hit the issue:

    1. Create a base VM and take a snapshot.
    2. Create a linked clone VM from the snapshot of the base VM.
    3. Create 3 snapshots of the base VM.
    4. Delete the oldest snapshot of the VM, with consolidate set to “False”, this means snapshot of the disk won’t be consolidated. 
    5. Delete the linked clone VM.


After the above 5 steps the vVol object mapped to the base-disk of the linked clone VM will still exist on the storage array.