Nakivo restore failed "failed to create target VM: datastore is inaccessible"

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The target datastore being inaccessible at restore time is a host-side storage condition: check the datastore's state on the target host in the hypervisor, whether it is mounted, its free space, and whether a storage event, a lost LUN or an NFS outage, made it vanish after the job was configured. Pick a healthy target or restore the datastore's connectivity, then re-run the restore; the backup data is not the problem in this failure.

Nakivo restore failed "failed to create target VM: datastore is inaccessible"

Use this when

• The job or restore fails with this symptom: Nakivo restore failed with failed to create target VM: datastore is inaccessible.
• You are working on a Nakivo restore creating a VM on a target datastore and the failure repeats on the same target or schedule.
• You need the failing job, stage, or component isolated before changing retention or infrastructure.

Not for this skill when

• A datastore that is accessible but out of space, where the restore's error wording still says inaccessible and the fix is capacity.
• The error text names a different product, stage, or root cause. Match the verbatim error first and use that skill.

Steps

1. Check the target datastore in the hypervisor's view on the intended host: mounted, visible, and with free space. Verify: datastore condition is established
2. Look for storage events on that host in the window: path failures, unmounts, or NFS server issues. Verify: any storage event is correlated
3. Test creating a small placeholder VM or file on the datastore from the hypervisor side. Verify: the datastore accepts new objects, or refuses informatively
4. Restore datastore health or select a different target, then rerun the restore and confirm the VM is created. Verify: the restore creates the target VM

Variant phrasings

nakivo restore failed create target vm datastore inaccessible

The verbatim phrasing.

nakivo restore datastore inaccessible target host fix

The target phrasing.

nakivo vm restore failed datastore unmounted space

The hypervisor-view phrasing.

Compatibility: Nakivo Backup and Replication restores and target datastores

Why it happens

Restores validate their target at creation time, so a datastore that was healthy when the job was designed can be a refusal when the restore runs. The message collapses unmounted, unreachable, and sometimes full into one word, and only the hypervisor's own view separates them.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Datastores visible on one host may be missing on another in the same cluster; the restore's target host is the view that matters.
• After a storage outage, datastores sometimes remount read-only; a create test catches what a status view does not.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst9JMZSEa3A-GbpJo0pOjpg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst9JMZSEa3A-GbpJo0pOjpg

Thread query: Nakivo restore failed "failed to create target VM: datastore is inaccessible"

TL;DR: The target datastore being inaccessible at restore time is a host-side storage condition: check the datastore's state on the target host in the hypervisor, whether it is mounted, its free space, and whether a storage event, a lost LUN or an NFS outage, made it vanish after the job was configured. Pick a healthy target or restore the datastore's connectivity, then re-run the restore; the backup data is not the problem in this failure.