vCenter : Remove orphaned VMs

A VM appears as  orphaned  in the vCenter inventory when it has been directly deleted from the inventory of the host (in a vSphere-client session) instead of the vCenter one.

If the VM is not needed anymore the inventory must be cleaned so the vCenter database can be up-to-date.
Manually remove an object  is simple but it can really get boring  when it comes to do the same for several objects.

​Among many, one method to remove orphaned VMs from vCenter inventory :

clear

$vcenter = read-host “Please enter the FQDN of the vCenter you want to connect to”
write-host “vc” $vcenter -ForegroundColor cyan
Connect-VIServer $vcenter

 

write-host “Looking for orphaned VMs…” -ForegroundColor Gray

$OrphanedVM = @(get-vm |get-view | ?{$_.summary.runtime.connectionstate -eq “orphaned”})
if(!$OrphanedVM)
{write-host “No orphaned VM found,leaving…” -ForegroundColor Gray;break}

 

$userAnswer = read-host (“You are about to delete the following VM ” + $OrphanedVM.name + ” : . Do you confirm (y/n) ?”)
if ($userAnswer.ToLower() -eq “y”)
{
foreach($VM in $OrphanedVM)
{
$VMName = $VM.name

try
{
write-host “Removing VM $VMName…” -ForegroundColor Gray
get-vm $VMName | Remove-VM $VM -Confirm:$false
write-host “VM VMName successfully removed” -ForegroundColor Green
}
catch
{
write-host (“Failed to remove VM $VMname. Error : `n” + $_.Exception.message) -ForegroundColor Red
}
}

}
else
{
write-host “Leaving…”
}