VMs reregistered and now seen as new VM

[GabesVirtualWorld]

Hi
So we had a big issue and needed to hard remove VMs from an ESXi host and then reregister them again. Unfortunately now the backup sees them all as new VMs and is making a full backup, taking up a lot of extra space of course. Eventhough I'm aware of the MofID that might change, I had hoped that since the VMX file UUID entries didn't change, the MofID would also remain the same.

Questions:
- Is there anyway to fix this?
- Should we have reregistered them in a different way? (Now we browsed to VM folder, right click vmx and register)
- Were there other options to remove the VMs marked as inaccessible from a host that is still running but doesn't see the storage anymore. We had to present a copy of the datastore to a different host in the same vCenter.
- When using the new VMotion between vCenter Server feature, would the MofID of the VM remain the same or would this also trigger a new full backup (if the VEEAM can even find the vm now).

Regards
Gabrie

[tdewin]

Gabrie,

There is an UNSUPPORTED migration tool for this:
https://www.veeam.com/kb2136

[GabesVirtualWorld]

Thanks !

[foggy]

Every time you register VM in VI, it gets a new Moref ID. Cross-vCenter migration should do the trick (provided it is triggered from Veeam B&R).