Under certain conditions, linked-clone data in View, View Composer, and vCenter Server might get out of synchronization, and you might be unable to provision or delete linked-clone machines.

Problem

  • You cannot provision a linked-clone desktop pool.
  • Provisioning linked-clone machines fails, and the following error occurs: Virtual machine with Input Specification already exists
  • In View Administrator, linked-clone machines are stuck in a Deleting state. You cannot restart the Delete command in View Administrator because the machines are already in the Deleting state.

Cause

This issue occurs if the View Composer database contains information about linked clones that is inconsistent with the information in View LDAP, Active Directory, or vCenter Server. Several situations can cause this inconsistency:

  • The linked-clone virtual machine name is changed manually in vCenter Server after the pool was created, causing View Composer and vCenter Server refer to the same virtual machine with different names.
  • A storage failure or manual operation causes the virtual machine to be deleted from vCenter Server. The linked-clone virtual machine data still exists in the View Composer database, View LDAP, and Active Directory.
  • While a pool is being deleted from View Administrator, a networking or other failure leaves the virtual machine in vCenter Server.

Solution

If the virtual machine name was renamed in vSphere Client after the desktop pool was provisioned, try renaming the virtual machine to the name that was used when it was deployed in View.

If other database information is inconsistent, use the SviConfig RemoveSviClone command to remove these items:

  • The linked clone database entries from the View Composer database
  • The linked clone machine account from Active Directory
  • The linked clone virtual machine from vCenter Server

The SviConfig utility is located with the View Composer application. The default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware View Composer\sviconfig.exe.

Important: Only experienced View Composer administrators should use the SviConfig utility. This utility is intended to resolve issues relating to the View Composer service.

Take these steps:

  1. Verify that the View Composer service is running.
  2. From a Windows command prompt on the View Composer computer, run the SviConfig RemoveSviClone command in the following form: 
    sviconfig -operation=removesviclone
          -VmName=virtual machine name
          [-AdminUser=local administrator username]
          -AdminPassword=local administrator password
          [-ServerUrl=View Composer server URL]

    For example: 

    sviconfig -operation=removesviclone -vmname=MyLinkedClone
 -adminuser=Admin -adminpassword=Pass -serverurl=ViewComposerURL

    The VmName and AdminPassword parameters are required. The default value of the AdminUser parameter is Administrator. The default value of the ServerURL parameter is https://localhost:18443/SviService/v2_0

For more information about removing virtual machine information from View LDAP, see VMware Knowledge Base article 2015112: Manually deleting linked clones or stale virtual desktop entries from the View Composer database in VMware View Manager and VMware Horizon View.