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Inaccessible virtual machines are named as Unknown VM (2172)

Details

Some virtual machines are being renamed Unknown VM.

Solution

When an ESX machine is rebooted or a host agent is restarted, it needs to reload the host agent configuration of each registered virtual machine. If the .vmx file is inaccessible, ESX is unable to read the configured name of the virtual machine, and it defaults to Unknown VM.
 
Temporarily losing access to storage does not cause a virtual machine's name to be permanently set to Unknown VM. For more information, see Identifying shared storage issues with ESX or ESXi (1003659).
 
After storage problems are addressed, restart the management agents on this host. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).
 
If the virtual machine is still renamed as Unknown VM, examine the /etc/vmware/hostd/vmInventory.xml file on the host to reveal which virtual machine were formerly registered.  Make a note of the virtual machines and the datastores on which they are located and then re-register the virtual machines.
 
To re-register the virtual machine:
  1. Right-click the Unknown VM entry and click Remove From Inventory.
  2. Browse to the appropriate datastore for the virtual machine and open its folder
  3. Right-click the *.vmx file and click Add to Inventory.
  4. Power on the virtual machine. 
  5. Repeat Steps 1 to 4 for all unknown virtual machines.

Tags

virtual-machine-unknown-invalid

Keywords

VIClient; 2172

Update History

05/17/2011 - Added steps to re-register virtual machines

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