Datastores are inaccessible after decommissioning the Host connected to them

Products

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

Issue/Introduction

A Host was decommissioned.

The Host had LUN(s)/Datastore(s) connected, which were only connected via this one Host.

All these Datastores are now showing as inaccessible.

When selecting one of the Datastores, the error "The datastore is not accessible" is observed.

The Datastores are accessible on the Storage Array.

 

 

Example:

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi (All Versions)

Cause

Host was decommissioned without unmounting its LUNs/Datastores first. As a result, these LUNs/Datastores are now showing as "inaccessible", because the only Host which had them configured has been decommissioned (= offline).

 

Resolution

1.) In the vSphere Web Client: If one or all of the inaccessible Datastore(s) are needed mount them to other available Host(s) in the vSphere Web client.

Alternatively, power on the decommissioned Host and then unmount the datastores.

 

2.) If the Host is no longer needed, remove it from vCenter Inventory

This will remove all its Datastore(s) showing already as "inaccessible"

Right click the Host --> Select "Remove from Inventory"

 

Additional Information

See for more details: Remove VMFS Datastores