Unable to see the virtual machine entry in vCenter Server Inventory

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You are unable to see the virtual machine entry in vCenter Server Inventory
• Virtual machines are visible when connected directly to the host
• vpx_vm table in the vCenter Server database does not have virtual machine details
• The /etc/vmware/hostd/vmInventory.xml file has entry about that virtual machine
• The vpxd.log file show entries similar to:
  
  <YYYY-DD-MM>T<time> [04772 warning 'Default' opID=HB-host-90@133-127fa47f] [VdbTableDef::IsStringInColumnLimit] String length (7437) for ANNOTATION is longer than the DB schema size
  </time><YYYY-DD-MM>T<time> [04772 warning 'vpxdvpxdInvtVm' opID=HB-host-90@133-127fa47f] [VpxdInvtVm] Ignoring VM adding since it has invalid string size for DB schema: SVR005</time>

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Cause

This issue occurs when the number of characters in the Annotations section of the virtual machine is too large.

Note: Mostly, annotations are created by backup jobs which are appended on every backup operation.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, clear the virtual machine annotations from the host.

To clear the virtual machine annotations:

1. Login to the ESXi host directly using the vSphere Client.
2. Select the virtual machine that is not appearing in the vCenter Server Inventory.
3. Click the Summary tab.
4. Edit the annotations and clear the contents.

Additional Information

Editing virtual machine settings fails with the error: You cannot use the vSphere client to edit the settings of virtual machines of version 10 or higher
vCenter Server のインベントリに仮想マシンのエントリが表示されない