VMware Horizon: remove folder VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder

When the VMware Horizon Composer is dismissed, the VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder may be left in the vCenter Server and must be removed manually following a correct procedure.

The folder is by design a protected object to avoid deletion and remove from the vCenter Server Inventory and it is automatically configured by the Horizon Composer when replicas are created.

Since VMware Horizon 7.x will be Out of Support next March 2023, it is time to migrate the current infrastructure to the new Horizon 8 removing obsolete configurations from the infrastructure.

Delete folder VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder

The procedure to remove the folder from the vCenter Server is the same as you normally do. Access the Inventory area, right click the folder VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder and select Remove from Inventory.

Click Confirm to delete the selected folder.

Unfortunately the folder is not removed and it cannot be directly deleted because it is a protected object.

How to remove the orphaned folder

To remove the orphaned folder we need to use the sviconfig tool provided with the VMware Horizon Composer.

To run the tool we need first to retrieve the Composer DSN configured in the system. From the Horizon Composer Server, open the ODBC Data Source Administrator and go to System DSN tab. Note the System Data Source in use (HorizonComposer in the example).

Now open the Command Prompt and go to C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware View Composer\ folder. Run the following command:

sviconfig -operation=UnprotectEntity -DsnName=Composer_DSN_name -DbUsername=Composer_DSN_User_Name -DbPassword=Composer_DSN_User_Password -VcUrl=https://vCenter_Server_address/sdk -VcUsername=DomainUser_of_vCenter_Server_account_name -VcPassword=vCenter_Server_account_password -InventoryPath=/Datacenter_name/vm/VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder -Recursive=true

C:\> cd \Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware View Composer\

C:\...> sviconfig -operation=UnprotectEntity -DsnName=HorizonComposer -DbUsername=sa -DbPassword=Password55! -VcUrl=https://vcenter.morse.net/sdk -VcUsername=administrator@vsphere.local -VcPassword=Password99! -InventoryPath=/Datacenter-VDI/vm/VMwareViewComposerReplicaFolder -Recursive=true

Now, go back to vCenter Server and try to remove the folder once again.

This time the folder has been removed successfully.

With this simple procedure, the orphaned folder is removed from the vCenter Server. Note that if you don't delete the folder, nothing bad happens to the vCenter Server and your infrastructure can work without any issue.