Under certain circumstances, the icon for Placeholder VMs displays incorrectly in the vSphere client.
Let's say you have protected and recovery vCenters, SRMs and vSphere Clients with SRM plugins and DNS all good to go.
When all is good
When you are Windows logged in to your recovery site vCenter (the site containing placeholder VMs) and you launch the vS client, it does not matter how you refer to the recovery vCenter server when launching the vS client, by short name, FQDN or IP, when you then navigate to a container holding your placeholder VMs, the icon for them is "correct", i.e a typical 3-boxes vm icon with the lightning bolt. See first attachment right.jpg.
Now, if you are Windows logged in to your protected (Note: protected) site vCenter and you then launch the vSphere client to login to the recovery vCenter (Note: that's recovery vCenter not protected vCenter), how you refer to the recovery vCenter system affects the correctness of the icon displayed for Placeholder VMs. If you use short name or IP, placeholder VMs display correctly with the lightning bolt icon.
When it's bad
If however you specify the recovery vCenter by FQDN when launching the vS client, remember - you are doing this when Windows logged in to your protected vCenter, then the icon displayed for Placeholder VMs is wrong. See second attachment wrong.jpg. The lightning bolt is not there, but it is also not a standard vm icon. I don't know what the icon is meant to represent.
Go ahead, try it, as I have done on multiple systems. Please read the above carefully when attempting to replicate this.
Is this a bug? Can anybody explain why you should get different icons for placeholders determined by name referral method to the recovery vCenter by short or long name?
Does anybody care? Probably not, but I reckon it's the most important issue facing mankind this microsecond, so your thoughts are most welcome.