VCF Administrator is Unable to Power on Virutal Machine - data File is Either Missing or Corrupted.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to power on a virtual machine a virtual machine, an error is thrown stating the 'file cannot be found'.  Additionally when viewing the settings in VC, the disk is missing from the virtual machine inventory.  See Below:

As the connecting to the host directly shows that a base disk is mounted, this error is related to vCenter Server having the incorrect inventory for the impacted Virtual Machine

Environment

• All Supported Versions of vCenter Server
• All Supported Esxi Versions

Cause

This issue is occurring due to a inventory issue on the vCenter Server side, where vCenter is holding different information in the database than the host has in it's inventory.

Resolution

To confirm if this is an issue

• Direct connect to the host
• Edit settings on the virtual machine
• Confirm the appropriate .vmdk file is listed under 'Virtual Hardware'. 

Once it is confirmed it is recommended to open a case with the Broadcom Compute Team to confirm findings and walk through the appropriate process steps.