VMware Restore to files does not restore VMX file (4047239)

Date: MAY 2011
Product & Version: VMware plugin 2.1
OS Version: all
Application version: Vsphere4

Symptoms:
When restoring VMware backup using the restore to files option the vmx file is not restored.
Unable to use the VMware converter on the files restore because the vmx file is not there

Look at the backup log of the job that the restore comes from and we see the following:

From binary log:

Job Message 2011/04/04 00:31:10 1382 Data Plugin LDNNETVAULT1 Backing up .vmx file to media
Information 2011/04/04 00:31:11 1382 Data Plugin LDNNETVAULT1 Optional vmx file could not be fetched

Binary subtext:

Module/Thread Id Code Time Message
VMWBCKUP:05836 103 0 233110 Added index entry for 'VirtualMachineConfigInfo' of nodetype '1108014' from 34104 to 51241
VMWBCKUP:05836 182 0 233110 Fetch from server and backup file
VMWBCKUP:05836 183 0 233110 File name is '[ldnbgmsa01:vmstore1] KITDEVSQL1/KITDEVSQL1.vmx'
VMWGET :05836 3 0 233111 Considering zero bytes received as an error
VMWBCKUP:05836 122 0 233111 Failed to fetch VM file 'KITDEVSQL1.vmx'


Cause:
At times when backing up the vmx file is locked a ESX server and the VMware backup APM that is used to by netvault to backup the VMware systems is unable to open the file for backup.