Backup jobs are failing for a restored VM

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptom:

• Backup jobs for a restored VMware virtual machine (VM) are failing when using Commvault backup tool.
  
  
• The failure occurs after restoring a VM from backup while the original VM is still present and running in the same vCenter environment.
  
  
• The backup job reports errors related to instance UUID and BIOS UUID conflicts.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

• This issue occurs because both the original VM and the restored VM coexist within the same vCenter.

  • During a full VM restore, the behavior of instance UUID assignment depends on whether the original VM exists in the target vCenter:

    • If the original VM is not present, the restored VM retains the original instance UUID.

    • If the original VM exists in the same vCenter, a new instance UUID is created for the restored VM.

  • Having duplicate or conflicting UUIDs (instance UUID / BIOS UUID) leads to the backup tool being unable to properly identify the VM, resulting in job failures.

Resolution

• To avoid UUID conflicts and ensure successful backups, consider cloning the existing VM instead of performing a full restore in the same vCenter.
  Refer - Clone an Existing Virtual Machine

• If the problem persists even on the cloned VM, contact your backup vendor (Commvault support) for advanced troubleshooting.

Additional Information

Full Machine Restores for VMware

Restore vmware VM with original unique ID | Community