Remove VMs or VM Templates from vCenter Server or from the Datastore

You can temporarily remove a VM or VM template from vCenter Server or you can permanently delete it from the datastore.

The process is the same for a VM or a VM template:

• When you remove a VM from the inventory, you unregister it from the host and vCenter Server, you do not delete it from the datastore. Virtual machine files remain at the same storage location and you can later re-register the virtual machine by using the datastore browser. This helps if you want to edit the virtual machine's configuration file. It's also useful to temporarily remove a VM when you have reached the maximum number of virtual machines that your license or hardware allows.
• If you no longer need a VM and want to free up space on the datastore, you can remove the VM from vCenter Server and delete all virtual machine files from the datastore, including the configuration file and virtual disk files.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine is turned off.

Procedure

• ♦ Log in to the vSphere Client and perform the task:

  Option	Description
  Temporarily remove the VM or VM template	Right-click the virtual machine. Select Remove From Inventory and click OK.
  Permanently delete the VM or VM template	Right-click the virtual machine. Select Delete from Disk and click OK.