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s1m0nb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Export VM List incomplete

Hi

When I try to export a list of all our vm's to excel - we only get the first hundred or so - in tests anywhere from 85 to 120 -- I would like to see all 800..... Is this a known issue? Or is it just me?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

TIA

14 Replies
s1m0nb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Forget it...Patience is a virtue apparently...although the vms are all displayed in the list the export to excel is not complete - the answer is display the list then leave it for a couple of minutes the export Smiley Happy

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roland_geiser
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello

I have the same problem: Wanted to export a list with 120 vms, and excel only showed me only 112. I restarted the vc service, waited long time (displaying the vm list) before exporting... it didn't work.

I checked every vm in the inventory and looked at my export list, so I could identify the missing machines. I can see no similarities when looking at the concerned machines. I can see no reason why exactly those 8 machines are not exported.

What I did is: Rename the vms, rename it back to the original names. Then I tried the export again and - it worked!

Probably a bug in VC?

best regards

Roland

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aldikan
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi Guys,

Sorry to ressurect this thread,

After we upgraded our Virtual Infrastructure from 4.0 to 4.1U1, we have same issue.

Export List of 400+ VMs comes incomplete,

If I scroll list up and down a few times in the Virtual Center, I will get full list eventually,

We also noticed that if you scroll list of VMs or hosts up and down, objects will be grayed out for a couple of seconds before displaying normally,

Never had this issue before the upgrade.

Case with VMware was opened on April 1st,

various clean up scripts were run on our SQL DB, as per VMware KB,

Tomcat Java memory was increased from the defaults to 1GB initial and 3GB maximum.

Problem is still there, and VMware support seemed to run out of ideas.

Anybody esle having this issue?

Ideas on what can cause it?

Thanks guys,

Alex

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roland_geiser
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello Alex

I still have this effect. When I once scroll down the list of vms from top to down the export then is complete. When I scroll down pretty fast, then suddenly there are no more vms scrolling up in the list - the list is only a white sheet for just a small moment. Then in the middle of th screen there is a message called "loading..." and after a second, the vm list is continuing.

So with this "scroll-down-once-and-wait-for-all-vms-to-be-displayed" the export now works for me. If I export the list to excel without scrolling down , I have some of the vms correctly displayed in excel, and some rows are just grayed out. these grayed out rows are the vms that are missing. If I count all vms and the grayed out rows this gives me the total amount of vms that should have been exported.... - So if I detect gray rows, I know the export did not work correct and there are vms missing.

best regards

Roland

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aldikan
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks Roland,

I had Support case opened on April1st,

took 2 weeks of submitting logs, WebEx sessions..etc, to recieve this resolution:

"Hello Alex,

It was my pleasure to work with you on Support Request # 11056074003, regarding exporting VMs list in vCenter.

Based on our last communication, it appears that this case is ready to be closed. I will proceed with closing your Support Request today, as the issue has been reported and we have identified that the fix will be released in next version of ESX."

As long as scrolling prior to exporting works...., we can use it as a work around.

Thanks,

Alex

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Virtualinfra
Commander
Commander

is this issue is fixed in virtual center 4.1, any one tried this on 4.1..

Thanks & Regards Dharshan S VCP 4.0,VTSP 5.0, VCP 5.0
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aldikan
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

We are actually started to have it after upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1U1

And I was told this will not be fixed until v5, see above.

Alex

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farkasharry
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

What about using RVTools to export any kind of informations from vCenter? It is free, fast and genius...

I was working on a simliar script to export data, but found this tool and it just gives me everything that anyone can need.

*** If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful! *** vExpert 2019, VCAP-DCA,VCP,MCSE,MCITS and some more...
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simone_scr
Contributor
Contributor

Hello, the issue is still present at version 5.0, from the release notes
https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-50-release-notes.html

The exported list of virtual machines might be incomplete
When you select a datacenter, cluster, host, or other object in the vSphere Client inventory and export a list of its virtual machines, the list might not include all the virtual machines. This occurs because information in the list is not always populated for objects that are not visible.
Workaround: Before exporting, scroll through the list to make sure that all virtual machines are displayed.

I hope it helps
Regards
Simone

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dirch201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Time to ressurrect this issue once more.

I have had the same issue with v4 and v5 years back just as you good people, but have since used rvtools and forgotten all about it.

Well, well, well. Here we are in 2019 working with v6 and I end up in a situation where I dont have rvtools and try to export using vCenter.

So... export list of VM has the same issues with missing servers... as v5 ... as v4.

It can still be fixed by browsing down patiently.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

I would probably just skip all that and just use PowerCLI. Easy.

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JDMils_Interact
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I think I am agreeing with Dirch here. If the GUI is all you got then display the list of servers, CTRL-A to select them all (else click first one, SHIFT, Click last one) so they are all selected, then scroll down the page from top to bottom- seems like it gives the GUI time to load all the names in, then export and it works each time. I don't think you can do this in the webclient.

I don't think PowerCLI will work when the hosts have ESX Shell/SSH services off? Most of our host have these off so it would be a pain to have to turn them

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

PowerCLI does not require or depend on SSH or ESXi shell.

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abolfazlhashemi
Contributor
Contributor

you can use RVtools Software

it is the best report software for VMs.

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