0xe000ff18 or V-79-57344-65304 is reported and the backup set is canceled when backing up Virtual Machines with an asterisk in the name in vCenter. This will also crash the Beremote.exe process on the media server

Problem

Final error: 0xe000ff18 - A communications failure has occurred with a Virtual Machine resource. V-79-57344-65304 - The Virtual Machine resource is not responding. Backup set canceled. When Backing up Virtual Machines with an asterisk in the guest name in vCenter. This will also crash the beremote.exe process on the media server. 

Error Message

0xe0009581 - Cannot get the virtual machine XML information.
Final error category: Resource Errors

or

Error in Beremote Debug log from the Media Server:
[3192] 10/27/11 16:24:33 [ndmp\loops]         - LP_ENV::createVMWareSnapshot(): Failed to get config info for the VM '(DC)vCenter(DC)\vm\FolderName\FolderName\FolderName\FolderName\Server*Name*'
[3192] 10/27/11 16:24:33 [fsys\shared]        - SymVmTools: httpsget: SYM_VMC_ERROR:  FAILED_TO_OPEN_FILE
 

Solution

Please remove the asterisk from the Guest Virtual Machine name is vCenter.  This issue occurs because Windows does not support asterisk in a file name.  This issue would also be seen with other Special Characters such as the "less than" or "greater than" symbols.