VMDK missing or orphaned on vSAN datastore.

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

• When migrating a VM to a vSAN datastore, one or more hard disks are not visible in the VM configuration.
• Module Disk power on failed. Cannot open the disk 'example.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. The system cannot find the file specified.

• vpxd.log:

   info vpxd[27210] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=mkcnft4z-325945-auto-6zi3-h5:70098559-3c] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-395328 -- FileManager -- vim.FileManager.delete -- ####################-################/########-####-####-####-############)
   info vpxd[27210] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxdUtil opID=mkcnft4z-325945-auto-6zi3-h5:70098559-3c] [VmFileAccess] Operation: Delete, File: ds:///vmfs/volumes/vsan:####################-################/########-####-####-####-############/example.local_swap.vmdk, User: DOMAIN\\User,, ClientIP: 127.0.0.1
   info vpxd[27781] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=mkcnft4z-325945-auto-6zi4-h5:70098559-2c] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-395329 -- FileManager -- vim.FileManager.delete -- ####################-################/########-####-####-####-############)
   info vpxd[27781] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxdUtil opID=mkcnft4z-325945-auto-6zi4-h5:70098559-2c] [VmFileAccess] Operation: Delete, File: ds:///vmfs/volumes/vsan:####################-################/########-####-####-####-############/example.vmdk, User: DOMAIN\\User, ClientIP: 127.0.0.1

Environment

ESXi 8.0.3

Cause

The virtual disk file (example.vmdk) was manually deleted from the vSAN datastore by an authenticated user (DOMAIN\\User). The virtual machine continued executing in memory until a vSphere DRS migration was initiated, at which point the destination host failed to resume the virtual machine due to the missing underlying storage object.

 

Resolution

 

1. Verify the presence of the virtual disk in the VM directory:
   1. Navigate to the vSphere Client Datastore Browser.
   2. Locate the VM folder and check for the missing .vmdk file listed in the error.
2. Confirm manual deletion in the logs:
   1. Review vpxd.log for vim.FileManager.delete operations.
      
      

      info vpxd[####] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxdUtil] [VmFileAccess] Operation: Delete, File: ds:///vmfs/volumes/vsan:####/####.vmdk, User: ####

    
   3. Restore the missing virtual disk from a verified backup.
   
   4. If no backup is available:
   1. Edit the VM settings.
   2. Remove the orphaned hard disk from the configuration to allow the VM to power on.
   3. Note: Data residing on the deleted disk is permanently lost