Unable to remove a stale datastore entry from vCenter inventory

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

You cannot remove or delete a datastore from vCenter inventory. 

1. The datastore is not connected to any of the hosts 



2. The device backing does not display any information underneath



3. The Delete Datastore option is grayed out in vCenter 



4. The datastore does not display any files inside it but throws the error "Datastore is not accessible. No connected and accessible host is attached to this datastore"

Environment

VMware vCenter
VMware ESXi 
 

Cause

When a storage administrator improperly removes the datastore from the Storage array by revoking host access instead of following the correct removal procedure, this leaves behind a stale datastore entry in the vCenter inventory which becomes difficult to remove. 

Resolution

NOTE: Always follow the correct procedure to unmount a datastore from vCenter or ESXi to avoid such issues. 

Follow the steps below to fix this issue - 

1. Reboot all the ESXi hosts: Rebooting all the hosts that were connected to the datastore will automatically remove the stale datastore entry from vCenter inventory 

2. If the above step does not work, the datastore must be removed from the vCenter Database manually. 

Please submit a case with the vCenter Management team for assistance.