<div>
Sometimes it's quite normal to discover left over orphaned files after a storage vMotion.<br />
<br />
Is the file still in use, has the VM been moved to the new datastore...<br />
<br />
Check the VM disk settings to confirm this.
</div>


<div>
The disk file on the vm itself points to the regular zldap.vmdk file in the new datastore location. How do I delete the orphaned flat-file.vmdk?<br />
<br />
Thanks for your help
</div>


<div>
login via console, or SSH (shell prompt) and use <b>rm</b><br />
<br />
if it cannot be moved or deleted, because it's locked it's in use, or a process has it locked.
</div>


<div>
Thanks Andrew,<br />
<br />
Before I do that, can you take a look at the attached log? I still see references to the flat-file.vmdk. Im concerned if I delete it, I will lose the VM.<br />
<br />
Previous logs show it using the flat-file.vmdk for quite some time, so I'm not sure my backups are any good either.<br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2019/02_w07/1412036/vmware.log" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="Vmware log file of vMotion'd VM (158 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>vmware.log</a>
</div>


vmware.log

<div>
You will not be able to delete if it's in use.<br />
<br />
have you checked both datastores.
</div>


<div>
Okay..logged in with ssh.....found the file in the datastore<br />
<br />
rm zldap-flat.vmdk - received the following error<br />
<br />
&quot;no such file or directory&quot;<br />
<br />
Okay...now I'm stumped :)<br />
<br />
Any advice?<br />
<br />
Thanks
</div>


<div>
Hi Andrew, I appreciate all your help....I've attached the screen shot as you requested. The Storage where the flat file is, is the Zimbra.Z20.0<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
<br />
Myles<br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2019/02_w07/1412112/FlatFile.PNG" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="Screen shot of rm command to delete flat-file.vmdk (130 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>FlatFile.PNG</a>
</div>


Screen shot of rm command to delete flat-file.vmdk

FlatFile.PNG

<div>
does it have any size, can it be deleted from the client ?<br />
<br />
is this file in two places ?
</div>


<div>
Have to wait for a maintenance window.....probably this weekend....sorry for the delay..thanks!!!
</div>


<div>
okay...very weird...using vCenter, i was able to move the file to another Datastore. I confirmed that the file was present in the new Datastore, both using vCenter and the esxcli, &nbsp;but it was still showing up in the OLD datastore. Again I tried to delete the file and I get the same error.<br />
<br />
Any ideas?<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
Myles
</div>


<div>
If you have restarted hosts, you will need to look at logs and check which process is holding a lock on the file, if the file is not being used or written to.
</div>


<div>
Tried to delete file from vCenter gui, &nbsp;cannot delete file.<br />
<br />
I'm going to call vmware support....don't really want to reboot the host if I can avoid it. <br />
<br />
Since it's the only file in the datastore...was thinking of just re-formating the datastore to grow it larger...which was the original plan when this issue came up.<br />
<br />
Thanks for all your help
</div>


<div>
no need to delete a datastore to grow a datastore!<br />
<br />
The file is in use, or is locked. You will &nbsp;need to use and find the process which has the lock, and then kill the process.<br />
<br />
see here<br />
<br />
<a href="https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2110152" rel="ugc nofollow">https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2110152</a><br />
<br />
If the process cannot be killed, you will need to restart the host.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's easier to restart a host, then waste a day looking for a locked file, which ultimately you cannot kill!
</div>


<div>
Please see attached. I followed the documentation in the KB article you specified.<br />
<br />
It says the file is NOT LOCKED....any ideas?<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
<br />
Myles<br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2019/02_w09/1413702/flatfile_no_lock.PNG" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="Result of article 2110152 (50 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>flatfile_no_lock.PNG</a>
</div>


flatfile_no_lock.PNG

Network Administrator

Myles Capen

<div>
Eventually we had to restart/reboot the host. That enabled us to delete the file. We then deleted the datastore sucessfully. I'm in the process of re-allocating memory in my NAS for each of my datastores. It seems that my datastores were force mounted. VMware support is being very helpful in resolving this issue. The information you provided was invaluable! <br />
<br />
Sorry it just took so long to get the project completed!
</div>


<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Esxi 6.0U3. Performed a storage vMotion on a vm to a different datastore. &nbsp;After that was complete, I went to the old datastore and looked at the files. The flat-file.vmdk was still located in the OLD datastore. How can I move the flat-file or delete it? I am moving the vm to make better use of my SAN. I tried to copy it to the new location, but received an error from my vcenter. I don't understand why the flat-file.vmdk was even in with the vm files.<br />
<br />
Please provide any guidance you can. The vm is a ldap server used with zimbra.<br />
<br />
Thank you
</div>
</div>


Esxi 6.0U3. Performed a storage vMotion on a vm to a different datastore.  After that was complete, I went to the old datastore and looked at the files. The flat-file.vmdk was still located in the OLD datastore. How can I move the flat-file or delete it? I am moving the vm to make better use of my SAN. I tried to copy it to the new location, but received an error from my vcenter. I don't understand why the flat-file.vmdk was even in with the vm files.

Please provide any guidance you can. The vm is a ldap server used with zimbra.

Thank you

flat-vmdk file remaining in datastore after vMotion

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Virtualization

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

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