Understanding how a virtual machine deletion task works in vCloud Director (2054972)

Purpose

This article provides information on how a virtual machine deletion task works in vCloud Director. This information is useful when you want to preserve your vCloud Director managed virtual machines in vCenter Server.

Resolution

Virtual machines managed by vCloud Director are uniquely tracked through cloud uuid present in the .vmx file of the virtual machine.

 

When a virtual machine is removed from the vCenter Server inventory and is later readded, vCloud Director considers this as the same virtual machine, even though the moref of this readded virtual machine in vCenter Server is not the same as the original virtual machine.

 

If a delete operation for a virtual machine fails in vCloud Director, the entry for that virtual machine is added under Stranded Items and vCloud Director periodically attempts to purge the Stranded Items. Purging a virtual machine from vCloud Director deletes the virtual machine from vCenter Server also.

 

Source:-

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2054972&src=vmw_so_vex_ragga_1012