VMware VADP virtual machine name limitations
Creation Date: October 29, 2013
Revision Date: October 29, 2013
Product: DS‑Client (Linux and Windows)
Summary
This article applies to VMware VADP backup sets. The VMware virtual machine name cannot contain certain special characters because they are treated differently when handling the machine for backup. If you do, DS-Client cannot back up that virtual machine.
Do not use any of the following characters in a virtual machine name:
%, &, *, $, #, @, !, \, /, :, *, ?, “, <, >, |, ;, ‘
This is a VMware issue. Special characters cause the vCenter Server to not resolve the machine.
See Also
Error Messages
The error on backup of the *.vmdk disk may display something like:
Error opening file disk2000.vmdk for reading...
Workaround
Try renaming the machine without a special character. Make a new backup set with that machine and attempt to back up again.
Additional Information
For more information, see VMWare Knowledge Base #2046088.