Hi,
to identify objects/entities in vSphere environment there are two properties which ensures its uniqueness:
- instanceUUID (128-bit integer) [replacement for SMBIOS UUID]
- MoRef ID (vm-214; cluster-3 ...)
these are not only assigned to VMs but also to other VI "objects" like hosts, datacenters, clusters, datastores ...etc.
by combining instanceUUID with MoRef ID you can uniquely identify objects across multiple vCenter server instances.
For more detailed and precise info look at these great posts:
http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/11/vsphere-moref-managed-object-reference.html
Uniquely Identifying Virtual Machines in vSphere and vCloud Part 1: Overview | VMware vSphere Blog -...
instanceUuid | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs
VMware KB: Looking up Managed Object Reference (MoRef) in vCenter Server
Design and Implementation Overview
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Regards,
P.