HCX migration fails with error "Creating placeholder VM for switchover failed"

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

• HCX migrations fails during switchover stage with error "Creating placeholder VM for switchover failed"
  
  
  
  
  
• The following errors are observed in the Target HCX Manager /common/logs/admin/app.log :
  
  2025-02-26 04:38:48.672 UTC [RAVService_SvcThread-10, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: TxId: ####-####-####-######] INFO  c.v.v.h.a.v.HostFileOperationsFacet-  The download URL for the file is https://<Target-ESXi-IP>/folder/test+vm_1740544390473/test+vm.vmx?dsName=<Datastore-Name>
2025-02-26 04:38:48.714 UTC [RAVService_SvcThread-10, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: TxId: ####-####-####-######] WARN  c.v.h.s.rav.jobs.CreateImageWorkflow- [migId=####-####-####-######] Unable to download vmx.
java.io.FileNotFoundException: https://<Target-ESXi-IP>/folder/test+vm_1740544390473/test+vm.vmx?dsName=<Datastore-Name>
  
  
• The following errors are observed in the Target ESXi /var/run/log/hostd.log :
  
  2025-02-26T04:38:48.730Z In(166) Hostd[1050587]: [Originator@6876 sub=HTTP server /folder req=######## user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator] Got HTTP GET request for /folder/test vm_1740544390473/test vm.vmx?dsName=<Datastore-Name>
2025-02-26T04:38:48.734Z In(166) Hostd[1051047]: [Originator@6876 sub=DatastoreBrowser opID=req=########-#### sid=##### user=vpxuser] DatastoreBrowserImpl::SearchInt MoId:####-####-####-######-datastorebrowser dsPath:[<Datastore-Name>]test vm_1740544390473 recursive:false
2025-02-26T04:38:48.736Z In(166) Hostd[1051047]: [Originator@6876 sub=AdapterServer opID=req=########-#### sid=##### user=vpxuser] AdapterServer caught exception; <<####-####-####-######, >, ####-####-####-######-datastorebrowser, vim.host.DatastoreBrowser.search>, N3Vim5Fault12FileNotFound9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.FileNotFound
   
• The following are observed in the HCX manager log /common/logs/admin/app.log
  
  2025-04-22 13:41:06.983 UTC [ReplicationTransferService_SvcThread-441, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: TxId: ####-####-####-######] WARN  c.v.v.h.adapters.vcenter.VmxUtils- Unable to download vmx.
com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument: A specified parameter was not correct: url

 

Environment

VMware HCX

Cause

HCX Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) and Bulk Migrations does not support the migration of VMs that have special characters, such as "+" in their names or associated folder paths

Example:
Source VM name : test+vm
In the above hostd.log, it is evident that the path has been changed to 'test vm' from 'test+vm' which is the reason the "FileNotFound" exception was triggered.

Resolution

To migrate VMs containing special characters in the name for example, "+" symbol, the suggestion is to rename VM and its files.
Note: After renaming the virtual machine, you must perform a Storage vMotion to a different datastore to ensure the underlying file paths are updated. For more information, please refer to:
Renaming a virtual machine and its files in vSphere

This is a known issue impacting VMware HCX

Special characters to avoid kb 342422