Recovering virtual machine templates lost in a vCenter Server upgrade

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading from one version of vCenter Server to another, the templates for virtual machines are no longer listed in the vCenter Server inventory.

Environment

VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x

Resolution

Occasionally, template data does not propagate through database upgrades or when moving hosts between ESX or vCenter Servers.

This recovery method requires that the templates are still present on the ESX hosts, even though they do not display in vCenter Server. If the templates are missing from the host (that is, they were deleted or corrupted), you must restore them from a backup first.

1. With the host that holds the templates selected in vCenter Server, double-click the datastore that the template is stored on to bring up the Datastore Browser.
   
   
2. Navigate the datastore to the folder containing the template.
   
   
3. Select the template configuration file, which has a .vmtx extension. Right-click it and select Add to Inventory.

The template is now registered in vCenter Server and appears in the inventory listings.