Virtual Machine (VM) is listed as Orphaned and vCenter Shows it Running on the Wrong Host

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vCenter shows a VM as Orphaned
• The VM is online and accessible
• When selecting the orphaned VM in vCenter and going to the Related Objects section on the Summary tab, you see the Host is listed as host1.example.com
• When you log into host1.example.com with the ESXi Host Client, the virtual machine isn't listed in the host's inventory
• When you log into another host in the environment with the ESXi Host Client, you find that the VM is running on the host

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server

Resolution

1. In vCenter, right-click the orphaned VM and select Remove from Inventory
2. Locate the ESXi host where the VM is running on, right-click it and select Connection > Disconnect > OK
3. Right-click the host again and select Connection > Connect
4. After the Connect task completes the, previously orphaned VM should no longer be listed as orphaned.