Background:
- 1 vCenter server
- 5 ESXi hosts attached to vCenter server
- 2 iSCSI storage arrays (array-1 and array-2)
We started getting VMFS metadata corruption errors from array-1 and migrated all VM storage onto array-2.
Migration was successful and VMs are operating normally.
VM virtual hard drives & directories were removed from array-1 automatically by the migration.
VM settings show array-2 as the datastore for all migrated VMs.
HOWEVER - we are still showing 4 VMs under Related Objects -> VM on array-1 (we moved over 20 VMs, and only 4 had this problem). This is the only reference I can find to those VMs and array-1. I am thinking it is somehow related to the corrupted VMFS metadata. I have completely disconnected array-1 from the network and the VMs operate normally so clearly it is not still using array-1.
THE PROBLEM - I cannot remove the array-1 iSCSI reference from my ESXi hosts because they are "in use" according to vCenter. I am assuming it is due to the incorrect dangling references to those 4 VMs.
How can I remove the array-1 datastore and/or iSCSI device from each ESXi host so that I can reformat it and re-add it as a completely new datastore? I have already removed the dynamic/static entries under the SW iSCSI adapter. It shows up as 'dead' but it will not remove because of the 'in use' error.
Thanks for any advice.