Provisioned Space for a Shared VMFS Datastore Shows Different Values in Different vCenter Datacenters

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Protect 8.x and 9.x

Issue/Introduction

· A single VMFS datastore (e.g., backed by FC storage) is mounted by ESXi hosts managed under two separate vCenter Datacenters (e.g., Datacenter-A and Datacenter-B).
· Virtual machines are created on this shared datastore within each Datacenter.
· When viewing the Summary or Configure tab of the datastore object in the vSphere Client:
     The Provisioned Space value shown in Datacenter-A is different from the value shown in Datacenter-B.
· The Virtual Machines tab for the datastore in each Datacenter shows a different list of VMs.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
VMware vSphere vCenter Server Appliance 8.0

Cause

• This behavior is expected and is a result of how vCenter Server manages and calculates the Provisioned Space metric at the logical inventory level.
• vCenter Server creates a separate logical view or inventory object for the datastore within the context of each Datacenter. The Provisioned Space value displayed in the UI is a management metric calculated by vCenter. It represents the sum of the sizes of all virtual disks (VMDKs) of the virtual machines that are registered and managed within the scope of that specific Datacenter.
  
  

Resolution

This is not a system error or data inconsistency but a feature of the management view. No resolution is required for the behavior itself. Understanding the distinction between the vCenter management view and the physical datastore state is key.