get orphaned vmdk information from vSAN

[BarryUWSEFS]

Hello Group, I see what appears to be a few orphaned vmdk files and folders in my datastore. Before deleting I was wanting to verify and hoping to find a way with PowerCLI (or optionally any method!). Most discussions point to LucD's script https://www.lucd.info/2011/04/25/orphaned-files-and-folders-spring-cleaning/.

However when I run this against my vSAN datastore it does nothing, no error, no results. Further investigation reveals this only works with VMFS. So any help to discover my orphaned data on vSAN much appreciated.

[LucD]

Can you try the attached, updated version of that function?
It should work with VSAN datastores and take Content Libraries into account.

[BarryUWSEFS]

Thanks so much for responding, however it is still quickly returning to the prompt with no results or errors

PS C:\scripts> .\Remove-OrphanedData -Datastore VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3
PS C:\scripts>

[LucD]

Seems to be working for me.

[BarryUWSEFS]

Okay, well hmmm. I know I have orphans because this datastore only supports two Horizon Desktop pools, and there are a couple master OS images for those. But I am seeing some VMDK folders and files from a couple years ago that have long been replaced, and with modified dates from 2018.

[LucD]

Can you comment out the line

$disk.details.thin = $true

and give it another try?

If those VMDK are not of type Thin they were not returned in the script. 

[BarryUWSEFS]

Sorry but same result. These orphaned files were from Windows 10 images that  most likely used the default storage policy which would be thin.

[LucD]

Next step could be to check if the search actually returns VMDK.
Does the following return results, including the VMDK that you suspect are orphaned?

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name MyDS

$flags = New-Object VMware.Vim.FileQueryFlags
$flags.FileSize = $true
$flags.FileType = $true
$disk = New-Object VMware.Vim.VmDiskFileQuery
$disk.details = New-Object VMware.Vim.VmDiskFileQueryFlags
$disk.details.capacityKb = $true
$disk.details.diskExtents = $true
$disk.details.diskType = $true
$disk.details.thin = $true
$searchSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.HostDatastoreBrowserSearchSpec
$searchSpec.details = $flags
$searchSpec.Query += $disk
$searchSpec.sortFoldersFirst = $true
$dsBrowser = Get-View $ds.ExtensionData.browser
$rootPath = "[" + $ds.Name + "]"
$searchResult = $dsBrowser.SearchDatastoreSubFolders($rootPath, $searchSpec)
$searchResult

[LucD]

When that does return orphaned VMDK, can you list in detail what the info says.
You will have to substitute the index 'x' for the actual value of the entry.

$searchResult[x] | Format-Custom

[BarryUWSEFS]

Thanks, sorry to be so obtuse but exactly what value do I use? This is the result of an orphaned VM.

Datastore-datastore-33 [VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3] cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0 {, , , }

I tried using cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0 and the whole path but am returning errors. Thanks!

[LucD]

The variable $searchResult should be an array.
You can check how many elements are in the array by doing $searchResult.Count.
Then find an entry that is an orphaned VMDK, note the position in the array (indexing starts at 0).
Then list the full content of that entry with

$searchResult[x] | Format-Custom

You can attach the output of that line as a TXT file to the thread. 

[BarryUWSEFS]

Oh, DUH, of course, had a simple review of using arrays. Unfortunately getting this error about "Missing type name"

Could that be that all these variables are not strings? or.... 

PS C:\> $searchResult [55] | Format-Custom
At line:1 char:15
+ $searchResult [55] | Format-Custom
+ ~~~~
Unexpected token '[55]' in expression or statement.
At line:1 char:16
+ $searchResult [55] | Format-Custom
+ ~
Missing type name after '['.
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken

[LucD]

Looks like you might have a space before the '['

[BarryUWSEFS]

Sorry you have to school me!

PS C:\> $searchResult[55] | Format-Custom

class HostDatastoreBrowserSearchResults
{
Datastore =
class ManagedObjectReference
{
Type = Datastore
Value = datastore-33
}
FolderPath = [VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3] cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0
File =
[
class VmDiskFileInfo
{
DiskType = VirtualDiskSparseVer2BackingInfo
CapacityKb = 131072000
HardwareVersion =
ControllerType =
DiskExtents =
[
[VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3]
cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0/vsan:/2cdb855b-2433-3b31-988c-246e96c7e8d0
]

Thin = True
Encryption =
Path = StudentBase-000004.vmdk
FriendlyName =
FileSize = 19868418048
Modification =
Owner =
}
class VmDiskFileInfo
{
DiskType = VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo
CapacityKb = 131072000
HardwareVersion =
ControllerType =
DiskExtents =
[
[VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3]
cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0/vsan:/cf38835b-1833-3d05-3492-246e96c7e8d0
]

Thin = True
Encryption =
Path = StudentBase.vmdk
FriendlyName =
FileSize = 26310868992
Modification =
Owner =
}
class VmDiskFileInfo
{
DiskType = VirtualDiskSparseVer2BackingInfo
CapacityKb = 131072000
HardwareVersion =
ControllerType =
DiskExtents =
[
[VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3]
cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0/vsan:/5548835b-96cf-5a0b-26b7-246e96c7e8d0
]

Thin = True
Encryption =
Path = StudentBase-000001.vmdk
FriendlyName =
FileSize = 28760342528
Modification =
Owner =
}
class VmDiskFileInfo
{
DiskType = VirtualDiskSparseVer2BackingInfo
CapacityKb = 131072000
HardwareVersion =
ControllerType =
DiskExtents =
[
[VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3]
cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0/vsan:/f481845b-149d-c521-6f92-246e96c7e8d0
]

Thin = True
Encryption =
Path = StudentBase-000002.vmdk
FriendlyName =
FileSize = 23366467584
Modification =
Owner =
}
]

LinkedView =
}

 

[LucD]

That looks ok, thanks.
The next step is to look at the folders that contain valid VMs and Templates.
Does the following code show the folder  [VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3] cd38835b-7439-424f-4a75-246e96c7e8d0 in the results?

$fldList = @{}

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name MyDS

Get-VM -Datastore $ds | % {
    $_.Extensiondata.LayoutEx.File | where { "diskDescriptor", "diskExtent" -contains $_.Type } | % {
        $fldList[$_.Name.Split('/')[0]] = $_.Name
    }
}
Get-Template | where { $_.DatastoreIdList -contains $ds.Id } | % {
    $_.Extensiondata.LayoutEx.File | where { "diskDescriptor", "diskExtent" -contains $_.Type } | % {
        $fldList[$_.Name.Split('/')[0]] = $_.Name
    }
}

$fldList.Keys

 

[BarryUWSEFS]

Bingo! No it does not, and the array count went from 190 to 113.

[LucD]

Ok, so we established that there are indeed folders with orphaned VMDK.
The next step is to find out why the function doesn't seem to find them.

I attached a new version of the function, it contains some verbose output.
Call the function now with

Remove-OrphanedData -Datastore MyDS -Verbose

 This will probably produce a lot of output.
Perhaps best to save it in a TXT file and attach it.

[BarryUWSEFS]

This immediately returned to the prompt without error or output.

[LucD]

I find that hard to believe.
Did you use the Verbose switch on the call to the function?
How in fact are you running this? In a .ps1 file?

[BarryUWSEFS]

Not sure, what can I be doing wrong?

PS C:\scripts> .\Remove-OrphanedData -Datastore VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3 -Verbo
se
PS C:\scripts>
PS C:\scripts> ls

Directory: C:\scripts

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 12/3/2020 1:56 PM 6416 Remove-OrphanedData.ps1

PS C:\scripts> Get-Datastore -name VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3

Name FreeSpaceGB CapacityGB
---- ----------- ----------
VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastor... 12,567.094 26,827.313

PS C:\scripts>

[LucD]

Depends what you have in that .ps1 file?
Is that the complete function (first line says Function)?
Or did you convert it to a plain script?

The easiest way to call the function would be to copy the full function (the file I attached earlier) into a .ps1 file.
Then in that same .ps1 file, at the end, add a new line calling the function.
In your case that would be

Remove-OrphanedData -Datastore VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3 -Verbo
se

Now just run the .ps1 file, without any arguments.

[BarryUWSEFS]

The first time I simply extracted the script from the zip and used as is. Seems to work most of the time LOL!  This time I simply opened it it in notepad++, added the line to the bottom and saved, and it ran. Thanks for your patience. I used out-file to get into text.

[LucD]

So it is working?
It returns all the orphaned VMDK?

[BarryUWSEFS]

LucD,

Sorry for the delay, I got married and went on a little vacation. Thought I had responded to that effect but do not see it now. Anyway, I believe you nailed it, this looks good. Because this is a Horizon Linked Clone deployment, there are a lot more results than I believe there would be from persistant VM's. So I need to analyze a bit more before I would run a delete. Be curious if you have any experience running the script against Horizon non-persistant VM's. If I find anything that suggests an invalid rsult I will be sure to circle back and let you know. Meanwhile thank you for all your time and patience.

 

[LucD]

No problem, and congratulations to both of you. 

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with non-persistent VM on VSAN storage.

[LucD]

Can you check what this returns for your datastore?

Get-Datastore -Name MyDS |
Select Name,Type,@{N='Multi';E={$_.ExtensionData.Summary.MultipleHostAccess}}

[BarryUWSEFS]

PS C:\> Get-Datastore -Name VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3 |
>> Select Name,Type,@{N='Multi';E={$_.ExtensionData.Summary.MultipleHostAccess}}

Name Type Multi
---- ---- -----
VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3 vsan True