Issue:
vcbSnapShot.exe requires the MoRef of the Virtual Machine (VM) to function. To obtain this information you must use the vcbVmName.exe utility.
Cause:
Poor design of the vcbSnapShot utility. VMWare fails to include the same command line options to vcbSnapShot as are available in vcbVmName.
Solution:
Use the following vcbVmName syntax options to retrieve the VM MOREF ID.
Find the MOREF ID by VM Name
vcbVmName -h vc-servername -u username -p password -s name:vm-name
Find the MOREF ID by DNS Name
vcbVmName -h vc-servername -u username -p password -s ipaddr:servername1
OR
vcbVmName -h vc-servername -u username -p password -s ipaddr:sname1.domain.com
Find the MOREF ID by IP Address
vcbVmName -h vc-servername -u username -p password -s ipaddr:192.168.1.1
vc-servername: can be the ESX server or VirtualCenter Server (DNS Name or IP Address)
username: is the ESX user (root) or the VirtualCenter Server username (domain\username)
password: is the appropriate password
vm-name: is the VM Name as it appears in the VI Client, use double quotes (“vm name”) if spaces are in the name. The vm-name is Case Sensitive and the complete name is required, no partial searches are allowed.
vcbVmName Output Example:
Found VM:
moref:vm-813
name:vm1 - Test Server
uuid:12395955-e4d5-ace8-b123-12317731d3a0
ipaddr:192.168.1.10
Use the value returned for moref in the vcbSnapShot command line as follows
vcbSnapShot -h vc-servername -u username -p password -f moref:vm-813 snap-name
More Information:
Virtual Machine Backup Guide ESX3 VC2
There are two different formats for the MoRef ID.
moref:vm-00027 – Use this format when accessing VirtualCenter Server.
moref:248 – Use this format when accessing the ESX Server host.