~ # grep -E "\<test\>" /tmp/vms_list
"16";"test vm";"[datastore-1]";"New Virtual Machine/New Virtual Machine.vmx"
~ # grep -E "\<test vm\>" /tmp/vms_list
"16";"test vm";"[datastore-1]";"New Virtual Machine/New Virtual Machine.vmx"
~ #

grep -E "\"${VM_NAME}\"" /tmp/vms_list | ...

~ # grep -E "\"test vm\"" /tmp/vms_list
"16";"test vm";"[datastore-1]";"New Virtual Machine/New Virtual Machine.vmx"
~ # grep -E "\"test\"" /tmp/vms_list
~ #

#!/bin/bash

# Backup the current IFS
OLD_IFS="${IFS}"
IFS=";"

# Name of VM we're looking for
MY_VMNAME="vm"

# Walk through stdin, stop at first match
while read VM_ID VM_NAME VM_DS VM_VMX; do
        test "${MY_VMNAME}" = "${VM_NAME}" && break
done << __VMS_LIST__
1;vm01;[datastore-1];New Virtual Machine #1/New Virtual Machine #1.vmx
2;vm02;[datastore-1];New Virtual Machine #2/New Virtual Machine #2.vmx
3;vm03;[datastore-1];New Virtual Machine #3/New Virtual Machine #3.vmx
4;vm04;[datastore-1];New Virtual Machine #4/New Virtual Machine #4.vmx
5;random vm name;[datastore-1];random vm name/random vm name.vmx
6;vm;[datastore-1];vm/vm.vmx
7;vm05;[datastore-1];New Virtual Machine #5/New Virtual Machine #5.vmx
8;vm06;[datastore-1];New Virtual Machine #6/New Virtual Machine #6.vmx
__VMS_LIST__

# Print the values of the last record read
echo ${VM_ID} ${VM_NAME} ${VM_DS} ${VM_VMX}

# Restore IFS
IFS="${OLD_IFS}"

 ~ # ./testvmlist.sh
6 vm [datastore-1] vm/vm.vmx
 ~ #

	#dump out all virtual machines allowing for spaces now
	${VMWARE_CMD} vmsvc/getallvms | sed 's/[[:blank:]]\{3,\}/   /g' | awk -F'   ' '{print $1";"$2";"$3}' |  sed 's/\] /\];/g' | sed '1,1d' > /tmp/vms_list

	IFS=$'\n'
	for MY_VMNAME in `cat ${VM_INPUT} | sed '/^$/d' | sed -e 's/^[[:blank:]]*//;s/[[:blank:]]*$//'`;
        do
		OLD_IFS="${IFS}"
		IFS=";"
		while read VM_ID VM_NAME VM_DS VMX_CONF; do
			test "${MY_VMNAME}" = "${VM_NAME}" && break
		done </tmp/vms_list
		# Restore IFS
		IFS="${OLD_IFS}"

		VMFS_VOLUME=`echo "${VM_DS}" | sed 's/\[//;s/\]//g'`
		
#		VM_ID=`grep "${VM_NAME}" /tmp/vms_list | awk -F ";" '{print $1}' | sed 's/"//g'`

		#ensure default value if one is not selected or variable is null
		if [ -z ${VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION} ]; then
			VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION="$(date +%F)"
		fi

		#esx
		if ; then
			#VMFS_VOLUME=`grep \"${VM_NAME}\" /tmp/vms_list | awk -F ";" '{print $3}' | sed 's/\[//;s/\]//;s/"//g'`
			#VMX_CONF=`grep \"${VM_NAME}\" /tmp/vms_list | awk -F ";" '{print $4}' | sed 's/"//g'`
			VMX_PATH="/vmfs/volumes/${VMFS_VOLUME}/${VMX_CONF}"
			VMX_DIR=`dirname "${VMX_PATH}"`
			#VMX_DIR=`echo ${VMX_DIR%/*}`
		fi
		#esxi
		if ; then
			#VMFS_VOLUME=`grep -E \"${VM_NAME}\" /tmp/vms_list | awk -F ";" '{print $3}' | sed 's/\[//;s/\]//;s/"//g'`
			#VMX_CONF=`grep -E \"${VM_NAME}\" /tmp/vms_list | awk -F ";" '{print $4}'  | sed 's/\[//;s/\]//;s/"//g'`
			VMX_DIR=`dirname "${VMX_CONF}"` 	
			#VMX_DIR=`echo ${VMX_DIR%/*}`
			VMX_DIR=/vmfs/volumes/${VMFS_VOLUME}/${VMX_DIR}
			VMX_PATH=/vmfs/volumes/${VMFS_VOLUME}/${VMX_CONF}
		fi

		#checks to see if we can pull out the VM_ID
		if [ -z ${VM_ID} ]; then
			echo "Error: failed to extract VM_ID for ${MY_VMNAME}!"

It looks promising so far.

Error: failed to extract VM_ID for test!
##########################################
Type: light
Virtual Machine: test vm
VM_ID: 16
VMX_PATH: /vmfs/volumes/datastore-1/New Virtual Machine/New Virtual Machine.vmx
VMX_DIR: /vmfs/volumes/datastore-1/New Virtual Machine
VMX_CONF: New Virtual Machine/New Virtual Machine.vmx
VMFS_VOLUME: datastore-1
##########################################

Error: failed to extract VM_ID for test1!
Error: failed to extract VM_ID for tesat2!
Error: failed to extract VM_ID for test3 und4 5!

Start time: Wed Nov 26 22:08:19 UTC 2008
End   time: Wed Nov 26 22:08:19 UTC 2008
Duration  : 0 Seconds

Completed backing up specified Virtual Machines!

I'm not suggesting that this IS the way to do things just that this might mean a simple way to set it up once and have it do more.

I never actually thought about just installing linux and doing it that way! I think I will give that a go but before I do I may try what kpc suggested and change NFS to async on FreeNAS. I much prefer FreeNAS over Openfiler (which I feel has very poor support to encourage you to pay for it) as it's much easier to use and setup. It also has lower hardware requirements compared to Openfiler. It took me about 45 minutes to setup an NFS share on Openfiler as it just wasn't clear how it was done, at least to me.

Will post back my findings.