vCenter allows to create VMs with the same names.

It was quiet day when all of the sudden I got message that vCenter allows to create the virtual machines with the same names. At first I thought; okay probably they create VMs in diffrent Datacenters object but it was not the case.So it is bug or future ;-). And yes you can create VMs with the same names on one esx host but in different catalog (folder if you are windows guy ;-)). Please find the story below:

Create new VM

1.) Choose esx host to create VM
2.) Create New Virtual Machine with name '1'

Create second VM with name '1'

1.) We put the name '1' into Name box
2.) We choose datacenter object Lab
3.) Click Next and ...

1.) We get error message as expected. NO VMs with the same name in the same datacenter object.

What happens if we choose 'Discovered virtual machine' catalog

Yes, we can create VM with name '1' in default folder/catalog. In next step we create more catalogs and create more VMs with name '1' yeah babe !!!

1.) Name of VM '1'
2.) Repeat step and add VM object '1' to dev catalog
3.) to 'Discovered virtual machine' we already added and second VM with the same object cannot exist
4.) add VM object '1' to test catalog

What we see in 'Host and Cluster' view ?

Holy cow 4 VMs with the same names on one ESX host !!!

But let me think what we will see in 'VMs and Templates' view

Here we can recognize that all '1' VMs are owned by different parents objects datacenter Lab, folders test, dev and Discovered virtual machine.

VMware has created mechanism to prevent creating vms with the same name on the same datastore:

As you can see even if you create the next '1' VMs on the same datastore [iSCSI] vCenter take care about this and change the name in background. The same mechanism is triggered when you svMotion VM to datastore where VM with the same name exist.

Take away from this story:
1.) Catalogs/folders in 'Host and Cluster' and 'VMs and Templates' are different !!! It is a bit counter intuitive.
2.) Double check your name conventions particularly if you run 1000 of VMs.
3.) Check if you run VMs with the same name using PowerCLI scripts or Orchestrator workflow or simple in 'Virtula Machines' tab on datacenter object.

the end...