NetWorker: VMware View is Listing the Same VMs Multiple Times

One or more VMware VMs appear multiple times in the NMC VMware View.

There were multiple VMs with the same name configured in VMware. In one scenario, this was observed when VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) was used. SRM is not integrated with NetWorker, but is used to automate and orchestrate VM replication within the VMware infrastructure. In this scenario, each of the VMs showing duplicates in VMware had multiple VMs. This was identified by generating a dump of the vCenter inventory from NetWorker:

This command generates three XML files. On Linux hosts, the files are generated under the /nsr/cores/nsrvim. On Windows hosts, the files are generated in the directory from which the nsrvim command was run.

The vCenter_Resource_Name.xml file details the contents of the VMware inventory. For example:

<vm>
<type>VirtualMachine</type>
<name>VM_NAME</name>
<moref-id>vm-24334</moref-id>
<path>/FOLDER_NAME/VM_NAME</path>
<moref-path>/datacenter-21/domain-c26/vm-24334</moref-path>
<vm-path>/DATASTORE_NAME/SRM Protected/FOLDER1_NAME/VM_NAME</vm-path>
<moref-vm-path>/datacenter-21/group-v346/group-v10122/vm-24334</moref-vm-path>
<uuid>50072391-f5c7-e5e1-10d6-d5b40fbcee85</uuid>
<version>vmx-19</version>
<change-version>2025-07-19T05:01:07.615462Z</change-version>
<annotation>original template=TMPL_RHEL75_x64_0618 Created: 05/25/2018 Patched:</annotation>
<template>false</template>
<datastore>DATASTORE1_NAME</datastore>
<datastore-moref>datastore-19315</datastore-moref>
<disable-cbt>false</disable-cbt>
<datastores>
<datastore>DATASTORE1_NAME</datastore>
</datastores>
<state>notRunning</state>
<ip-address/>
<host-name/>
<ip-address-array/>
<os-identifier>rhel7_64Guest</os-identifier>
<os-name>Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit)</os-name>
<status>gray</status>
<connection-state>connected</connection-state>
<power-state>off</power-state>
<esxi-name>ESXi1_HOSTNAME</esxi-name>
<esxi-moref>host-466</esxi-moref>
</vm>


<vm>
<type>VirtualMachine</type>
<name>VM_NAME</name>
<moref-id>vm-20482</moref-id>
<path>/FOLDER_NAME/VM_NAME</path>
<moref-path>/datacenter-21/domain-c26/vm-20482</moref-path>
<vm-path>/DATASTORE_NAME/SRM Protected/FOLDER2_NAME/VM_NAME</vm-path>
<moref-vm-path>/datacenter-21/group-v346/group-v20181/vm-20482</moref-vm-path>
<uuid>5007075a-14be-785a-5cb7-988f4e783724</uuid>
<version>vmx-19</version>
<change-version>2025-07-19T05:04:32.304617Z</change-version>
<annotation>original template=TMPL_RHEL75_x64_0618 Created: 05/25/2018 Patched:</annotation>
<template>false</template>
<datastore>DATASTORE2_NAME</datastore>
<datastore-moref>datastore-19317</datastore-moref>
<disable-cbt>false</disable-cbt>
<datastores>
<datastore>DATASTORE2_NAME</datastore>
</datastores>
<state>notRunning</state>
<ip-address/>
<host-name/>
<ip-address-array/>
<os-identifier>rhel7_64Guest</os-identifier>
<os-name>Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit)</os-name>
<status>gray</status>
<connection-state>connected</connection-state>
<power-state>off</power-state>
<esxi-name>ESXi2_NAME</esxi-name>
<esxi-moref>host-30348</esxi-moref>
</vm>

In the above example, the same VM appeared in two different folder locations, datastores, and ESXi hosts. In this example, the path included "SRM Protected" however, that may not always be the case. 

This is expected behavior. If multiple VMs exist with the same name in VMware, the VM is shown multiple times in NetWorker, One for each copy of the same VM.

Consult with the VMware administrator regarding any duplicate VMs shown in NetWorker's representation of the VMware inventory. If duplicates exist, confirm if they are expected. Either:

• Manually created VM clones
• VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) replicated VMs