I just want to say... why couldn't MS just put a checkbox on the prompt when removing a VM to choose whether or not to delete the associated VHD's.

I really want SCVMM to be the all in one console, but I still find myself having to use Hyper-V manager for tasks like this.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your input. Can you describe more clearly the scenario where you want to delete the vm but leave the vhd around on the host? We do have the feature "store to library" which does something similar. It removes the vm from a host but brings the vhd into central management in the library along with the vm configuration information. The vm can be redeployed later to any host or new vms can be created from this base.

It sounds like, however, you wish the vhd to remain on the remote host as an orphaned file. Are you planning to reuse the vhd later for another vm? If you could describe the scenario that would help us.

Thanks,

-James

• Marked as answer by Kristian NeseMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, July 30, 2012 6:36 PM

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your input. Can you describe more clearly the scenario where you want to delete the vm but leave the vhd around on the host? We do have the feature "store to library" which does something similar. It removes the vm from a host but brings the vhd into central management in the library along with the vm configuration information. The vm can be redeployed later to any host or new vms can be created from this base.

It sounds like, however, you wish the vhd to remain on the remote host as an orphaned file. Are you planning to reuse the vhd later for another vm? If you could describe the scenario that would help us.

Thanks,

-James

• Marked as answer by Kristian NeseMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, July 30, 2012 6:36 PM

James has a point here.

VMM will however delete the entire VM and all of its Associated files during a delete operation.

But, if you are deleting from Hyper-V manager, the VHDs will remain.

I have a similar scenario... In VMWare vCenter, we were able to simply "Remove from Inventory" in essence, you were simply removing the VM from VCenter; not its data. We are in need of moving some CSV's from one cluster to another, we would very much like to keep all the data. My VM's in question are not yet in production; but they do contain over 15TB of data on multiple CSVs.. It would be ideal to have the "Remove from Inventory" option as we have in our VMWare vCenter environment, were we can simply, move/present storage to another cluster and re-register the VM, then simply power up etc...

VMM also needs to be able to handle VM's using multiple CSV's to store its data. (we use alot of mount points on some of our virtual file servers). Something that is also very easy in vCenter, but your obligated to use Failover Cluster Manager or HyperV manager to complete these tasks.

Thanks,

-Eddy