Instant Recovery or Multi-OS File Level Recovery fails when the VM has Flex-SE disk

Even if there is at least one manually created SEsparse (Flex-SE) disk attached to the VM in backup you will experience the following issues:

1. A File Level Restore from Other OS session fails with the error:

“Failed to mount restore point
PowerOn failed
File
/vmfs/%vPower NFS datastore%/%sesparse-disk%.vmdk was not found”


 

1. An Instant VM recovery fails with the error:

 
“Failed to publish VM. Error: The file specified is not a virtual disk”

Manually created SE Sparse (Flex-SE) disks are not supported for publishing on the NFS datastore.

Workaround 1: Exclude these disks from future backups.
Workaround 2: Restore whole VMDK files using “VM Files restore” feature and attach them to another machine to get access to the file system. Please note, that you can attach such disks only in VMWare VSphere Web Client and the VM Hardware level should be at least 9.

To check your disks type open “Edit Settings” in VM Hardware section at Summary tab of your VM in VMWare VSPhere Web Client. If type is shown as Flex-SE then your VM is using SEsparse disk(s).