Unable to restore the virtual machine using the third-party backup software

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to restore the virtual machine using a third-party backup software
• When restoring the virtual machine, the virtual machine is created and is immediately deleted
• In the hostd.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  [2011-03-29 12:11:08.410 F56C2B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/myNewVM/myNewVM.vmx'] Failed to unset VM medatadata: FileIO error: Could not find file : /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/myNewVM/myNewVM-aux.xml.tmp..
  .
  .
  .
  [2011-03-29 12:45:27.991 F63D1900 info 'Libs'] Vix: [3093 foundryVM.c:10177]: Error VIX_E_INVALID_ARG in VixVM_CancelOps(): One of the parameters was invalid
  [2011-03-29 12:45:27.992 F63D1900 info 'ha-eventmgr'] Event 73 : Removed myNeeVM esx1.localdomain from ha-datacenter
  [2011-03-29 12:45:27.992 F63D1900 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/myNewVm/myNewVM.vmx'] State Transition (VM_STATE_DELETING -> VM_STATE_GONE)
  
  
• In the Symantec backup software, you see the error:
  
  Backup- VMVCB::\\VCENTERHOST\VCGuestVm\DATACENTER\vm\VIRTUALMACHINE V-79-57344-38721 - Failed to mount one or more virtual disk images

vm-restore

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded

Resolution

This issue occurs if the password of the account that is used to back up the virtual machine or the virtual machine directory name has an ampersand (&).

Note: This issue is not restricted to ampersand and may also occur if there are other special character in the password or the virtual directory name.

To resolve this issue:

• Ensure that the password does not contain special characters. For example, the non-standard US-English ASCII characters.
• Ensure that the virtual machine directory does not have any special characters.

Additional Information

For more information, see http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH129185