VMware error: The object has already been deleted or has not been completely created

Issue

When taking agentless backups. you receive the error, "The object has already been deleted or has not been completely created."

Cause

The storage LUN and the dependent VMFS datastore used to store replication data is temporarily disconnected from the ESXi host. When reconnected, replication continues as normal and no replication data is lost. An exception occurs in these scenarios:

  • vSphere Replication cannot locate the LUN as its Internal ID in the ESXi host has changed.
  • The target datastore internal ID changes when its containing host is removed from the vCenter inventory and later added back.

Resolution

In the vSphere Replication view, select a site.

  1. Right-click a virtual machine and click Reconfigure.
  2. Click Next, then click Browse to change the location of the files on the datastore that disconnected and reconnected. Select the same datastore and folder locations as before.
  3. Reuse the existing disks and reconfigure the replication of the virtual machine. Note: The vSphere Replication Management Server (VRMS) recognizes the changed datastore identity (managed object ID) in vCenter Server.
  4. Wait for initial synchronization to complete. The sync uses the existing disks and checks them for data consistency.