Powering on a virtual machine fails with the error: The object or item referred to could not be found
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Article ID: 337912
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Updated On:
Products
VMware vSphere ESXi
Issue/Introduction
Symptoms:
Cannot power on the virtual machine
Powering on the virtual machine fails
vMotion migration fails at 9%
You see the error:
The object or item referred to could not be found.
Unregistering and then re-registering the virtual machine does not resolve the issue
This issue persists even if you create a new virtual machine and attach the first virtual disk to it
Adding a virtual machine to the Inventory fails with the error:
The object or item referred to could not be found.
In the vmware.log file of the virtual machine (located in /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/virtual_machine_folder/), you see entries similar to:
| vmx| VMX idle exit | vmx| VMIOP: Exit | vmx| Vix: [124241 mainDispatch.c:900]: VMAutomation_LateShutdown() | vmx| Vix: [124241 mainDispatch.c:850]: VMAutomationCloseListenerSocket. Closing listener socket. | vmx| Flushing VMX VMDB connections | vmx| VmdbDbRemoveCnx: Removing Cnx from Db for '/db/connection/#1/' | vmx| VmdbCnxDisconnect: Disconnect: closed pipe for pub cnx '/db/connection/#1/' (0) | vmx| VMX exit (0). | vmx| AIOMGR-S : stat o=123 r=327 w=6 i=8 br=5357568 bw=638976 | vmx| VMX has left the building: 0.
In the vmkernel.log file of the host (located in /var/log/), you see entries similar to:
cpu9:4801)WARNING: Migrate: 215: Invalid message type for new connection: 542393671. Expecting message of type INIT (0). cpu9:4801)MigrateNet: vm 4801: 1982: Accepted connection from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx cpu9:4801)MigrateNet: vm 4801: 2052: dataSocket 0x4100500abe10 receive buffer size is 563560 cpu9:4801)WARNING: Migrate: 215: Invalid message type for new connection: 542393671. Expecting message of type INIT (0). cpu4:4801)MigrateNet: vm 4801: 1982: Accepted connection from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx cpu4:4801)MigrateNet: vm 4801: 2052: dataSocket 0x4100500abe10 receive buffer size is 563560 cpu4:4801)WARNING: Migrate: 215: Invalid message type for new connection: 542393671. Expecting message of type INIT (0). cpu9:4801)MigrateNet: vm 4801: 1982: Accepted connection from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx cpu9:4801)MigrateNet: vm 4801: 2052: dataSocket 0x410023bb1d20 receive buffer size is 563560 cpu9:4801)WARNING: Migrate: 215: Invalid message type for new connection: 542393671. Expecting message of type INIT (0).
In the hostd.log of the host (located in /var/log/), you see entries similar to:
[27610B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/ Lun/Datastore/vm_name.vmx '] Time to gather config: 20 (msecs) [26F81B90 verbose 'Hbrsvc'] Replicator: ReconfigListener triggered for config VM 65 [26F81B90 error 'Hbrsvc'] Replicator: ReconfigListener failed to look up VM (id=65) [27610B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/Lun/Datastore/vm_name.vmx '] Error retrieving MemoryClientStats for file layout : vmodl.fault.ManagedObjectNotFound [27610B90 verbose 'Hbrsvc'] Replicator: VmFileProviderCallback VM (id=65) [27610B90 info 'Hbrsvc'] Replicator: VmFileProviderCallback failed to look up VM (id=65)
Environment
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
Resolution
This is a known issue affecting ESXi 5.0 and 5.1.
To work around this issue, rescan the datastores for the ESXi cluster.
To rescan the datastores, right-click the Cluster level or the data center level and click Rescan for Datastores.
Note: If the Rescan for Datastores option is grayed out when connected to the vCenter Server, use the vSphere Client to connect to the individual hosts and perform the datastore rescan.