Version 1.16. This version is no longer supported. For information about how to upgrade to version 1.28, see Upgrade clusters in the latest documentation. For more information about supported and unsupported versions, see the Versioning page in the latest documentation.

Delete a VM in Distributed Cloud

This document is intended for application owners that run Google Distributed Cloud. This document shows you how to delete virtual machines (VMs) that use VM Runtime on GDC. You can choose to delete both the VM and associated disk resources, only the VM resource, or only the disk resources.

Before you begin

To complete this document, you need access to the following resources:

A VM that runs in one of your clusters. If needed, create a VM in Google Distributed Cloud.
The virtctl client tool installed as a plugin for kubectl. If needed, install the virtctl client tool.

Delete the VM and disk resources

This option deletes the VM resource and any associated virtual disks.

Use kubectl to delete both the VM and it's associated disk resources:
```
kubectl virt delete vm VM_NAME --all
```
Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM that you want to delete.

If you want to check the resources used by the VM that would be deleted, specify the --dry-run flag together with --all.

If you want to delete the VM without also deleting the disk resource, don't include the --all flag, as shown in the next section.

Delete the VM resource

This option only deletes the VM resource. Any associated virtual disks remain as part of the cluster. This option lets you create another VM and resuse the disk resource. The lifecycle of the VM can be managed separately to the lifecycle of the disk resource.

Use kubectl to delete only the VM:
```
kubectl virt delete vm VM_NAME
```
Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM that you want to delete.

Delete the VM disk resource

This option deletes a virtual disk resource. If the associated VM still runs in the cluster, the VM resource isn't deleted. This approach lets you delete a disk resource that remains if you previously deleted a VM without using the --all parameter.

Use kubectl to delete only the VM's disk resources:
```
kubectl virt delete disk DISK_NAME
```
Replace DISK_NAME with the name of the disk that you want to delete. For example, the default boot disk for a VM is named DISK_NAME-boot-dv. You can list all existing disks using kubectl get datavolume.

If you try to delete a VM's disk before deleting the VM, the disk is marked for deletion. The disk is only deleted when you also delete the VM.

What's next

Create and manage disks in Distributed Cloud.