Acronis Cloud Backup: All Or Some VMware Virtual Machines Do Not Appear In The Console

Link-https://kb.acronis.com/content/61853

Symptoms

1. You have set up some Agents for VMware (Windows or Virtual Appliance) connected to a vCenter/ESX(i) host.
2. Some virtual machines do not appear in Cyber Protection console after recovery or physical to virtual conversion

Cause

Current Acronis Cyber Protect products use VMware "InstanceUUID" property in order to identify each virtual machine. If one or more machines use the same InstanceUUID then only one machine will appear in the console.

If Acronis product was upgraded from an older version, it may be using BIOS UUID for VM identification. You can change the BIOS UUID method of identification to InstanceUUID method: see this article for instructions.

Solution

Change InstanceUUID of one of the machines to make it appear in Cyber Protection console. This can be done either by connecting directly to the host or via vCenter, or by modifying the .vmx file.

Connecting directly to the host:

1. Open vSphere
2. Go to Help -> Tools and links-> Managed object browser (press Enable if needed)
3. Then in address put: https://<host IP>/mob and log in with with host root credentials
4. Find ServiceContent and press content

   

5. Find rootFolder and press ha-folder-root

   

6. Find childEntity and press ha-datacenter​

   

7. Find datastoreFolder and press ha-folder-datastore

   

8. Find childEntity and press "<GUID>" (<datastorename>)
9. Find vm and check virtual machines list with names
10. Find the necessary virtual machine and press the <number> assigned

    

11. Find config and press config

    

12. Find instanceUuid parameter and check the string:
    •  If the string does not have any value, put a random unique GUID.
    • If the string has a value, but the VM is still not visible in the console, change the GUID to any other value.

      

13. Follow the steps below to change GUID or specify a new GUID if the value is empty:

    • Go back

    • Find ReconfigVM_Task and scroll down to the part with instanceUuid

      Depending on your environment, different letters may be capitalized in this parameter name: InstanceUUID, instanceUuid, etc. When running the query, leave the variable as is in your environment, even if screenshots or commands in this article show different uppercase/lowercase letters. This parameter is case-sensitive.

      

    • Delete contents of Value field except the following part:

      

    • Add GUID number and run the following query:

      <spec>

      <InstanceUUID>[GUID]</InstanceUUID>

      </spec>

      Instead of GUID place the ID in the following manner: abcdefgh-1234-ijkl-5678-mnopqrstuvws 

      Example:

      <spec>

      <InstanceUUID>529853de-346c-6685-496e-6b6a9f61c57b</InstanceUUID>

      </spec>

    • Press Invoke Method to set the new UUID

Connecting via vCenter:

1. Open a web browser and enter https://<IP of vCenter>/mob and log in with Administrator credentials
2. Find ServiceContent and press content

   

3. Find rootFolder and press <datacenter name>

   

4. Find childEntity and press <datacenter name>

   

5. Find datastoreFolder and press <datastore name>

   

6. Find vm and check virtual machines list with names

   

7. Find the necessary virtual machine and press the <number> assigned
8. Find config and press config

   

9. Find instanceUuid parameter and check the string:
   •  If the string does not have any value, put a random unique GUID.
   • If the string has a value, but the VM is still not visible in the console, change the GUID to any other value.

     

10. Follow the steps below to change GUID or specify a new GUID if the value is empty:
    • Go back

    • Find ReconfigVM_Task and run the following query:

      <spec>

      <InstanceUUID>[GUID]</InstanceUUID>

      </spec>

      Instead of GUID place the ID in the following manner (only HEX symbols are allowed): abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-ef123456 

      Example:

      <spec>

      <InstanceUUID>529853de-346c-6685-496e-6b6a9f61c57b</InstanceUUID>

      </spec>

    • Press Invoke Method

Modify the .vmx file

In case it is not possible to change InstanceUUID through the Object browser as described above, you can modify the corresponding parameter in .vmx file of the affected virtual machine:

1. Open the .vmx file for editing.
2. Find vc.uuid value and modify it by changing one or more symbols:

   

3. Save changes to .vmx file, then re-add the affected VM to the vSphere inventory.
4. Power cycle the affected VM.