Remove locked Instant-Clone objects in VMware Horizon DaaS

Introduction

In this article I will describe how to remove Instant Clone objects created in VMware Horizon DaaS from your vCenter Server.

I had to do this because I (on one of those famous rough Monday mornings 😉 ) deleted one of my demo tenants in VMware Horizon DaaS without properly clean the tenant first.

Note to self: kill the VDI’s first, than remove the images, etc. properly and THAN delete the tenant!

Unfortunately this wasn’t a very clever move because you can’t delete the remaining objects afterwards due to a lock in the database:

This can be avoided by changing the capacity of the desktop pools to 0 and convert/delete the images before you delete your tenant from the Horizon DaaS Service center.

Preparation

First, you need gather a list of cp-xxx objects you want to remove from the vCenter Server. I did this by listing all the VM objects sitting in the remaining desktop VLAN of my deleted tenant.

Now, export them to a Excel/CSV file.
In the second part of this article we will add a column to the file, so a clear overview is advised.

You can use the Data > “Text to columns” option in Excel to make the list more clear to read. My list looked like this:

Log on to the vCenter Server MOB.
To do this, type the following behind the FQDN of your vCenter Server: /mob/?vmodl=1.

Example: https://vcsa-fqdn/mob/?vmodl=1

After you logged on (use the administrator@vsphere.local account, or equal privileges) to the MOB, Browse to Content.

Navigate to the rootFolder > vim.folder > group-d1 (Datacenters)

We need to navigate to the datacenter where your cp-xxx objects are located: Navigate to childEntity > vim.ManagedEntity[] > datacenter-21 (Name of your DataCenter)

Next step is to find the datastore where the cp-xxx objects are stored.
In my situation it’s a NFS datastore: vim.Datastore[] > datastore-56

Once there, browse to the vm – vim.VirtualMachine[] row and choose more..

Now, get back to your Excel and copy the name of one of the cp-xxx objects. Use your browser’s search feature to find the objects.

You need to write down the vm-xxxx nr. of each object:

Remove the lock from the Instant Clone cp-xxx objects

In the following steps we will use MOB to remove the lock from Instant Clone cp-xxx objects.

Log on to the vCenter Server MOB.
To do this, type the following behind the FQDN of your vCenter Server: /mob/?vmodl=1.

Example: https://vcsa-fqdn/mob/?vmodl=1

After you logged on (use the administrator@vsphere.local account, or equal privileges) to the MOB, Browse to Content.

Browse to Content > AuthorizationManager

If one of these options is missing, close all your browser windows and retry OR open an incongnito window.

Navigate to vim.AuthorizationManager.EntityDisabledMethodInfo[] > enableMethods, A new browser tab will open with three fields: Entity, Method and SourceID.

We go back to the Excel list with the locked cp-xxx objects and the vm-xxxx numbers correlated to the them. We need those vm-xxxx numbers in the steps below.

Copy/Paste the XML content from the first code block below to the entity > vim.ManagedEntity[] value.

<!--array start --> 
<entity type="ManagedEntity" xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference">vm-0001</entity> 
<entity type="ManagedEntity" xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference">vm-0002</entity> 
<entity type="ManagedEntity" xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference">vm-0003</entity> 
<entity type="ManagedEntity" xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference">vm-0004</entity> 
<entity type="ManagedEntity" xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference">vm-0005</entity> 
<!--array end -->

Change the vm-xxx object names to the names you correlated during the preparations.

Copy/Paste the XML content from the second code block below to the method > vmodl.MethodName[] value.

<!-- array start -->
<entity type="MethodName" xsi:type="string">vim.VirtualMachine.unregister</entity>
<entity type="MethodName" xsi:type="string">vim.VirtualMachine.powerOff</entity>
<entity type="MethodName" xsi:type="string">vim.VirtualMachine.powerOn</entity>  
<entity type="MethodName" xsi:type="string">vim.ManagedEntity.destroy</entity>
<!-- array end -->

When done, choose Invoke Method in the right bottom.
The command will run for about 1 minute.

After running these commands, the lock on the cp-xxx objects have been removed.

You can now delete the cp-xxx objects using the GUI.

If you’re new to VMware Horizon DaaS, check out our Horizon DaaS Explained series here!