Description

For an ESXi host outside of a cluster (parent is ComputeResource), vmware.hv.discovery returns empty {#CLUSTER.NAME}. As a result:

• official templates put such hosts and their VMs into groups named (hypervisor) and (vm);
• group prototypes using {#CLUSTER.NAME} as a path segment fail:

  Cannot discover group: invalid group name "Virtualization/Hypervisors/DC0/".

Steps to reproduce

1. Add an ESXi host directly under a datacenter (or datacenter host folder), outside any cluster.
2. Link template "VMware"; additionally, create a host prototype on vmware.hv.discovery with group prototype Virtualization/Hypervisors/{#DATACENTER.NAME}/{#CLUSTER.NAME}.
3. Run discovery.

Discovery output (reproduced with vcsim):

Result

Expected

Standalone hosts are placed into meaningful groups.

Suggested fix

In templates "VMware" and "VMware FQDN", add LLD preprocessing with a default value for empty {#CLUSTER.NAME} (verified on 7.0.31):

var d = JSON.parse(value);
var arr = Array.isArray(d) ? d : (d.data || []);
arr.forEach(function (e) {
    if (!e['{#CLUSTER.NAME}']) {
        e['{#CLUSTER.NAME}'] = 'Standalone';
    }
});
return JSON.stringify(d);

Also document that {#CLUSTER.NAME} is empty for standalone hosts, and document {#PARENT.NAME} / {#PARENT.TYPE}, which can be used as an alternative.