Virtual machine disks showing "0MB" size in vCenter and incorrect disks size in ESXi Host Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Edit setting of virtual machine on vCenter shows hard disks as "0MB" in size
  
  

• Host Client UI shows incorrect disks size 
  
  

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 
• VMware vCenter 

Cause

• VMDK showing 0 MB is typically caused by a corrupted or missing descriptor file
• An inaccessible datastore, or an inconsistent snapshot chain. The underlying issue is often that the host cannot find or read the necessary files to determine the disk's actual size, resulting in it displaying 0 MB

Resolution

Before performing the steps below ensure having a backup of the affected Virtual Machine

1. Make sure the Virtual Machine is in Powered Off State
2. Right click on affected Virtual Machine and Click on Edit Settings
3. Select the Hard Drive, Click on "X" mark on right hand side and Detach the drive (Make sure not to check the box, where it says, delete the data from Datastore, leave it unchecked)
4. Click on Save and exit
5. Right click edit settings on Virtual Machine
6. Click on "Add" External Drive and click on Attach
7. Navigate to the VM folder, and attach the vmdk
8. Click on Save and then Power on the Virtual Machine
9. Check and verify the vmdk size on both vCenter and ESXi host client, we should be able to see the correct size of the vmdk