Restore Fails: ERROR "Object Reference Not Set to Instance of Object" (4034657)

Restore Fails: ERROR "Object Reference Not Set to Instance of Object"

When attempting a Restore operation from vRanger 5.x or 6.x, the operation fails at about 40% completion. The "empty" VM object is created on the ESX(i) Host being restored to, but no data appears to be transferred to it.

The most likely causes of the problem are related to how the vRanger machine resolves the name of the ESX(i) host involved. This is also more likely if a Virtual Center is not specified (i.e. only a single host to be restored to is defined in the vRanger inventory,) since under this scenario, vRanger MUST be able to resolve the name of the ESX(i) host to the correct IP (the Service Console IP in the case of VMware ESX, or the Management Port in the case of ESXi.

1) In the vSphere client, go to the "Configuration" page for the destination host(s). Then select "DNS and Routing". "Edit" the settings. Make sure the Host has a VALID (default VMware settings are "localhost.local" -- change these to something "resolveable" either by a hosts file entry on the vRanger server, or via DNS entries for the given environment).

2) NOTE: The "domain" field on this page CANNOT be left blank. If it is, VMware will append a period (".") to the end of the host's name, thus rendering "{hostname.}". This is not a valid, resolveable name, so the vRanger database returns the error, since the object "{hostname.}" does not correspond to an actual database entry.

3) Once resolution is confirmed fixed (ping the hostname from the vRanger machine), refresh the vRanger inventory and re-run the job. It should now complete.