Cannot find VM that appears to be running from vSAN datastore view

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

When browsing the vSAN datastore, there is a VM namespace folder, which contains all files consistent with a running VM, but there is no VM with that name running on the cluster.

- In the VM folder, there are .lck files, nvram files, etc., so the VM appears to be running.

 

Attempting to delete this VM from vSAN datastore in vCenter will fail.

Environment

vSAN 7.x

vSAN 8.x

vSAN 9.x

Cause

The display name of the VM has been changed at the configuration level.

This can be seen by viewing the .VMX file from an SSH session on the ESXi host where the VM appears to be running.

Resolution

Use vim-cmd command to identify the running VMs on each ESXi host.

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

 

Inspect the full path for each running VM on the right side of the output, and look for the VMX file that matches the name of the "missing" VM.

- The display name on the left of the output is the name the VM is running under.

 

Find this display name in vCenter, and confirm via Edit Settings that it it pointing at the other VM namespace for its configuration files.

 

 

If desired, the display name can be changed to match the filenames, but this will require VM downtime.