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Knowledge Base

Virtual machines appear as unknown in Inventory on host and invalid in vCenter Server (1031605)

Last Updated: 8/19/2020Categories: How toTotal Views: 91899Language:
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Symptoms

vSphere Client direct to host show virtual machine(s) as unknown.

The vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server shows virtual machine(s) as invalid.

No errors on storage or on vmkwarning.

All the virtual machines on the host are functional and responding.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

For ESXi 3.5, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x

Log in to the VMware ESX/ESXi host as the root user. For more information on VMware ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x Technical Support Mode, see Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x (1017910)

To list all running virtual machines and their corresponding VMIDs, run these commands:

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
cd /etc/vmware/hostd/

Make a copy of vmInventory.xml file by running this command:

cp vmInventory.xml vmInventory.xml.bak

Stop the vpxa and hostd services by running these commands:

/etc/init.d/vpxa stop
/etc/init.d/hostd stop

Rename the vmInventory.xml file by running this command:

Note: This action unregisters all virtual machines from the host.

mv vmInventory.xml vmInventory_xml.bak

Start the vpxa and hostd services by running these commands:

/etc/init.d/vpxa start
/etc/init.d/hostd start

Log in to vSphere Client and verify that the virtual machine Inventory is now displayed as blank.

Use this command to register every virtual machine back to Inventory on the host:

vim-cmd solo/registervmfull_path_of_VMX

For Example: vim-cmd solo/registervm /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/VM_directory/VM_name.vmx

Related Information

Virtual machines appear as invalid or orphaned in vCenter Server
Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x, and ESXi 6.x
仮想マシンがホスト上のインベントリに不明と表示され、vCenter Server には無効と表示される
虚拟机在主机的清单中显示为未知并在 vCenter Server 中显示为无效

Detectable by VMware SkylineTM

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Language:
Chinese (Simplified)JapaneseEnglish

Attachments

Additional Resources

KB
•
End Of General Availability of the Free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.x and 8.x) (2107518)

KB
•
Download and Install VMware Fusion (2014097)

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