The name of a VM doesn't have to correspond with the name of the .VMX file of that VM.
The "displayName" field in the .VMX file contains the name given to the VM.
It is difficult to extract the "displayName" field from a .VMX file when the VM is not registered.
The only way to this (in my opinion) is to:
*) register the VM from the .VMX file
*) get the VM's name
*) unregister the VM again
But this could give some problems (for example duplicate names for VMs).
The script higher up in this thread suffers from the problem the forum SW has with square brackets.
The line $dspath is incorrectly displayed. It should be: $datastorepath = "\[" + $ds.Info.Name + "\]"
Better to use the attached script instead of copying it from the browser.
See for a script to re-register VMs with the name in the "displayName" field.
The script below will create a CSV file with the same information you can see on the console.
If you don't want the console output, comment out the Write-Host cmdlets.
$report = @()
Get-Datacenter | % {
$datacenter = $_
Write-Host "Datacenter" $_.Name
$folder = Get-View ($_ | Get-Folder -Name "vm").ID
$_ | Get-Cluster | % {
$cluster = $_
Write-Host "`tCluster" $_.Name
$pool = Get-View ($_ | Get-ResourcePool -Name "Resources").ID
$esxImpl = Get-Cluster -Name $cluster | Get-VMHost | select -First 1
$esx = Get-View $esxImpl.ID
$dsBrowser = Get-View $esx.DatastoreBrowser
foreach($dsImpl in $dsBrowser.Datastore){
$ds = Get-View $dsImpl
if($ds.Summary.Type -eq "NFS"){continue}
$vms = @()
foreach($vmImpl in $ds.Vm){
$vm = Get-View $vmImpl
$vms += $vm.Config.Files.VmPathName
}
$datastorepath = ""
Write-Host "`t`tDatastore" $ds.Summary.Name
$searchspec = New-Object VMware.Vim.HostDatastoreBrowserSearchSpec
$searchSpec.matchpattern = "*.vmx"
$task = Get-View ($dsBrowser.SearchDatastoreSubFolders_Task($datastorePath, $searchSpec))
while ($task.Info.State -eq "running" -or $task.Info.State -eq "queued"){
$task.UpdateViewData()
sleep 5
}
if($task.info.result -ne $null){
foreach ($file in $task.info.Result){
$found = $FALSE
foreach($vmx in $vms){
if(($file.FolderPath + $file.File[0].Path) -eq $vmx){
$found = $TRUE
}
}
if (-not $found -and $task.Info.Result[0].File -ne $null){
$vmx = $file.FolderPath + $file.File[0].Path
Write-Host "`t`t" $vmx
$row = "" | Select Datacenter, Cluster, Datastore, VMXpath
$row.Datacenter = $datacenter.Name
$row.Cluster = $cluster.Name
$row.Datastore = $ds.Name
$row.VMXpath = $vmx
$report += $row
}
}
}
}
}
}
$report | Export-Csv "C:\Unregistered-VMX.csv" -NoTypeInformation
Use the attached script to avoid the square brackets problem.
, this version of script worked fine.I can see my unregister vm's are registered again on VC.