"Datastore conflicts with an existing datastore in the datacenter that has the same URL ........., but is backed by different physical storage"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Scenario:

Hosts are moved from one vCenter to another vCenter.

These Hosts are sharing the same Datastore.

When disconnecting a Host from the old vCenter and attempting to add it to the Target vCenter, the following errors are observed: 

 

• "Host has a datastore that conflicts with an existing datastore in the datacenter"

 

• "Datastore ##### conflicts with an existing datastore in the datacenter that has the same URL (ds:///vmfs/volumes/#####/), but is backed by different physical storage"

 

 

 

Environment

vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

Affected Host is using a different LUN ID for the reported Datastore than the other Hosts located in the Target vCenter.

In the example below, affected Host is using LUN ID: 0, while Host in the new vCenter is using LUN ID: 1

 

Affected Host in the old vCenter:

 

One of the Hosts in the new vCenter:

Resolution

1.) Work with your Storage HW Vendor on the LUN Presentation from the Array to the Hosts sharing the affected Datastore

to ensure that the affected Host is using the same LUN ID as all other Hosts.

For example: Depending on the Array type, consider removing the LUN/Datastore from the affected Host

 

2.) Perform Storage Rescan at Cluster Level:
vCenter vSphere Client --> Cluster containing all Hosts sharing the reported Datastore --> right-click --> Storage --> Rescan Storage

 

3.) Re-evaluate the LUN IDs shown under "Storage Devices" for the affected Host vs the Hosts in the new vCenter

 

4.) If all Hosts are using the same LUN ID, proceed with disconnecting the affected Host from the old vCenter and try to add it to the new vCenter (as described in Section "Issue/Introduction" )

 

 

Additional Information

If assistance is required, open a Ticket with VMware by Broadcom Support.