How to Delete vSAN Datastore Correctly

A simple note to delete vSAN datastore from ESXi host while it’s not parts of the cluster. The error “Found host(s) esxi.mydomain.lab participating in the vSAN service which is not a member of this host’s vCenter cluster“, indicates that the host is still a member of vCenter cluster.

The issue comes out when I was playing with vSAN configuration on vShpere 7. I’ve deleted the cluster without removing the cluster hosts properly.

Delete vSAN Datastore in ESXi Host

It’s not possible to delete a vSAN datastore from Datastore section of ESXi host. I’ve tried but the Delete button was false.

But we can remove the ESXi host from vSAN cluster then the vSAN datastore will be removed automatically.

Let’s delete vSAN Datastore using the following steps.

Enable SSH on ESXi host where you deploy VCSA

1. Log in ESXi host suing IP address and root and password.
2. Click Manage on Navigator part.
3. Select the Services tab.
4. Select TSM-SSH service from the list.
5. Push Start button on top.

Make sure the SSH is enabled and you are able to connect to ESXi host via SSH.

Related Article: How To Fix No Healthy Upstream VCenter 7 Issue?

You can enable ESXi SSH through vCenter as well.

Connect with root user to ESXi host using PuTTy, command prompt, Terminal, PowerShell, Chrome SSH or whatever you have.

 ssh root@192.168.20.101

Now, type the following command to check out the vSAN Datastore.

esxcli vsan storage list

If you have any storage linked to vSAN, delete it with the following command. Make sure you select the right UUID of the vSAN Datastore.

esxcli vsan storage remove -u "UUID"

The command will list all the vSAN mounted storage on ESXi host. If you don’t have any mounted datastore like my lab, just type the following command to remove the host from vSAN cluster.

esxcli vsan cluster leave

The task has been completed. Now you should have a healthy ESXi host with any notifications or the “Found host(s) esxi.mydomain.lab participating in the vSAN service which is not a member of this host’s vCenter cluster” error.

I hope this has been informative and solved the issue you have with your VMWare vSphere Lab. If you want more about vSAN Datastore and Disk group.