Datastore Browser - Content listing question

[dflint]

Here are the results with my Inventory is set to view VMs and Templates

VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder

vSvr1

vXP1

vXPClean

However when I browse the same datastore the results are different

vXPClean

vSvr1

vXP3

Xen

#1 - I was expecting the list to be the same in both places. Why are they different?

#2 - How do I clean up folders (and files) that are only visible form the datastore browser? ex .Xen

Thanks!

[dflint]

It turns out the discrepancies I was asking about were the result of renaming VMs in VC after they were created. The folder names in the Datastore Browser were the original VM names. So there's a lesson learned. Choose VM names you will stick with. I do still have one empty folder in the datastore I still can't remove.

[cf13]

#1

Here is simple solution for you:

Power off VM

Right click VM and select "remove from inventory" - this only removes VM from inventory but does not delete it from datastore

Now go to datastore browser and rename VM folder to any name you like

Now enter that folder and right-click *.vmx file and choose "Add to inventory"

Now you can add your VM to VC inventory under the same name as the folder's name on datastore

After this operation the name of VM under VC and the folder name on datastore are the same. The only thing that stays different are VM file names.

#2

Try to make SSH connection to your ESX server then navigate to /vmfs/volumes/DATASTORE NAME/ then

rmdir VM FOLDER NAME

or

rm -rf VM FOLDER NAME

Message was edited by: cf13

[dflint]

Thanks very much!

Problem resolved.