Recovering from ESXi Host Hardware Failure: Resolving Inaccessible VDI Clones
Article ID: 431732
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
After an ESXi host is reconnected to a vCenter cluster following a hardware failure (such as an internal M.2 boot drive replacement), the following symptoms may be observed:
Inaccessible Virtual Machines: Multiple virtual machines appear in the inventory with the status (inaccessible).
Raw Datastore Paths: Instead of friendly names, these inaccessible entries display as raw UUID datastore paths (e.g., /vmfs/volumes/Datastore_UUID/VM_UUID/).
Network Configuration Errors: The host displays a configuration issue stating: "The vSphere Distributed Switch corresponding to the proxy switches... does not exist in vCenter Server or does not contain this host".
Resource Reporting: Inaccessible VMs show a status of ? Unknown with 0 Hz CPU and 0 B Memory usage.
Environment
VMware vCenter Server 8.x
Omnissa Horizon
Cause
Orphaned VDI Registrations: In VMware Horizon (VDI) environments, "Instant Clones" are ephemeral. If a host crashes abruptly, vCenter may retain database registrations for clones that were deleted or moved by the Horizon Connection Server while the host was offline. Because the .vmx files no longer exist on the datastore, vCenter renders them as inaccessible raw paths.
Resolution
Clean Up Inaccessible Inventory Entries
For ephemeral VDI clones or vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) VMs, right-click the inaccessible entry and select Remove from Inventory.
Note: This is safe for clones as Horizon will automatically provision replacements. Do not perform this on persistent VMs without a backup.
Verify that the files are truly missing by browsing the datastore before removal.
Additional Information
Related Information
KB312831: Virtual machines appear as invalid or orphaned or inaccessible
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