file cannot be found for virtual machine with file path containing percent encoding characters (VMware VM backup)

OS

All

Software

6.0 - 6.29

Error message

File "/vmfs/volumes/VM_name/Filepath_with_Special_Character.vmx" does not exist

Cause

HTTP access to files on host failed to transfer data when a requested filename contains the following characters:

"`", "^", "~", "=", ";", "!", "/", "(", ")", "[", "]", "{", "}", "@", "$", "\", "&", "#", "%", "+"

Note:
Percent-encoding as specified in the URL standard is not supported for ESXi based HTTP(S) file access.

Solution

To resolve the issue, please rename the affected file path with special characters. For instructions on renaming VM file path, please refer to the following knowledge base article from VMware:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003743

Also See:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026469