Error occurs when attempting to delete a stale vSAN datastore

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

An unconfigured or unused vSAN datastore remains in the vCenter inventory and cannot be removed, displaying the error: "Datastore 'vsanDatastore' is not accessible. No connected and accessible host is attached to this datastore." This issue persists even though the datastore reports 0 bytes allocated, indicating a stale entry.

Environment

ESXi 8.x

vSAN 8.x

Cause

The cause is a stale logical reference to the unconfigured/unused vSAN datastore. This reference, often pointing to a VM component like an ISO file on the reference datastore, prevents the vCenter inventory cleanup routine from completing. The vCenter server retains this logical dependency, even after the vSAN datastore has been unconfigured or removed from the underlying hosts.

 

 

Resolution

To resolve the stale datastore entry, the VM with the associated logical dependency must be deleted or removed from the inventory.

1. Identify the VM: Locate the VM that retains the association with the stale vSAN datastore (often, the only VM still referencing the unavailable datastore).

2. Delete or remove the VM from the vCenter inventory.

Additional Information

If problem persists, removing stale object from the vCenter database may be needed. 

Cannot delete stale datacenter object from vCenter using vSphere Client