Delete a VCH

You delete virtual container hosts (VCHs) by using the vic-machine delete command.

For descriptions of the options that vic-machine delete includes in addition to the Common vic-machine Options , see VCH Delete Options.

When you delete a VCH that uses TLS authentication with trusted Certificate Authority (CA) certificates, vic-machine delete does not delete the certificates or the certificate folder, even if you specify the --force option. Because vic-machine delete does not delete the certificates, you can delete VCHs and create new ones that reuse the same certificates. This is useful if you have already distributed the client certificates for VCHs that you need to recreate.

Prerequisites

You have deployed a VCH that you no longer require.

Procedure

1. On the system on which you run vic-machine, navigate to the directory that contains the vic-machine utility.

2. Run the vic-machine delete command.

   The following example includes the options required to remove a VCH from a simple vCenter Server environment.

   • You must specify the username and optionally the password, either in the --target option or separately in the --user and --password options.
   • If the VCH has a name other than the default name, virtual-container-host, you must specify the --name or --id option.
   • If multiple compute resources exist in the datacenter, you must specify the --compute-resource or --id option.

   • If your vSphere environment uses untrusted, self-signed certificates, you must also specify the thumbprint of the vCenter Server instance or ESXi host in the --thumbprint option. To obtain the thumbprint of the vCenter Server or ESXi host certificate, run vic-machine without the specifying the --thumbprint or --force options. The deletion of the VCH fails, but the resulting error message includes the required certificate thumbprint. You can copy the thumbprint from the error message and run vic-machine again, including the --thumbprint option.

     NOTE: If you obtain the thumbprint by other means, use upper-case letters and colon delimitation in the thumbprint. Do not use space delimitation.

   $ vic-machine-operating_system delete
   --target vcenter_server_username:password@vcenter_server_address
   --thumbprint certificate_thumbprint
   --name vch_name

3. If the delete operation fails with a message about container VMs that are powered on, run docker stop on the containers and run vic-machine delete. Alternatively, run vic-machine delete with the --force option.

   CAUTION Running vic-machine delete with the --force option removes all running container VMs that the VCH manages, as well as any associated volumes and volume stores. It is not recommended to use the --force option to remove running containers.

   If your vSphere environment uses untrusted, self-signed certificates, running vic-machine delete with the --force option allows you to omit the --thumbprint option.

   $ vic-machine-operating_system delete
   --target vcenter_server_username:password@vcenter_server_address
   --name vch_name
   --force

What to Do Next

The vic-machine delete command does not modify the firewall. If you do not need to deploy or run further VCHs on the ESXi host or cluster, run vic-machine update firewall --deny to close port 2377 on the host or hosts.