Removing a VMFS datastore

Edit online

Use the IBM Storage Ceph Plugin for vSphere to automate the removal of vSphere Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) datastores.

Before you begin

In the vSphere Client inventory, identify the VMFS datastore that you wish to delete and identify any remaining Virtual Machines or VM Templates that exist on this datastore. Remove these VMs or VM Templates from the vSphere inventory or migrate them to a different datastore.
Note: If any VM or VM Templates exist on the datastore, you cannot delete the datastore with the plug-in.

About this task

This task initiates a workflow to delete a VMFS datastore and the underlying volume from the storage system. All data is lost upon volume deletion.

Note: To prevent active volumes or host mappings from being deleted inadvertently, the system supports a global setting Volume Protection. This setting prevents these objects from being deleted if the system detects that they had recent I/O activity. If the underlying storage system is configured with Volume Protection, an informational message is displayed.

Removing a VMFS datastore only deletes the underlying NVMe-oF namespace. The associated RBD volumes remain. After datastore deletion, to restore data from the RBD volumes or to remove the volumes from the storage system, contact your storage administrator.

Procedure

  1. From the vSphere Client, select the vSphere Cluster that requires new VMFS datastores, and click Actions > IBM Storage.
  2. Select Delete VMFS Datastore.
  3. Review the summary panel and click Delete.
  4. Monitor the Recent Tasks view in vSphere to confirm the task was completed successfully.