## TL;DR
The management console cannot reach the backup and DR appliance, so every job for its VMs fails at the same door: check the appliance's power and service state, its network path to the console and to the hosts, and whether a certificate or version change broke the connection after an update. Restore the appliance connection first; the VM backup errors are downstream noise until the appliance answers.

```text
Google Backup and DR backup failed "appliance is not reachable" error for VMware VM
```

## Use this when
- The job or restore fails with this symptom: Google Backup and DR backup failed with appliance is not reachable for a VMware VM.
- You are working on a Google Backup and DR deployment whose appliance dropped offline 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
- An appliance that is reachable but whose host connectors are down, where the fix is the connector on the ESXi hosts.
- The error text names a different product, stage, or root cause. Match the verbatim error first and use that skill.

## Steps
1. Check the appliance's status in the console and its own health indicators, including uptime and service state. Verify: the appliance's condition is known
2. Test the network path between console, appliance, and the VMware hosts, including any firewall change windows. Verify: the broken path segment is identified
3. Confirm the appliance and connector versions after any recent update and re-establish the connection or trust if an update reset it. Verify: versions and trust are aligned
4. Run a small on-demand backup for one VM through the appliance and confirm it completes. Verify: jobs flow through the appliance again

## Variant phrasings
### google backup and dr appliance is not reachable vmware
The verbatim phrasing.
### backup and dr appliance offline all backups failing fix
The offline phrasing.
### google cloud backup appliance unreachable connector hosts
The connector phrasing.

Compatibility: Google Cloud Backup and DR appliances protecting VMware VMs

## Why it happens
The appliance is the single worker for its protected estate, so its unreachability fails every job it owns with the same message. Per-VM troubleshooting is wasted until the shared worker is back, which is why appliance state is the first check, not the last.

## Edge cases / pitfalls
- An appliance mid-update looks unreachable on a schedule; check the update calendar before escalating.
- Clock drift on the appliance breaks console trust in ways that mimic network failure; verify its time source.

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_eQk7xFgf6g6RkL0vQKphIQ