The Create Virtual Machine Wizard fails if the cloud contains special characters

This article helps you fix an issue where the Create Virtual Machine Wizard fails to create a new virtual machine (VM) when you try to deploy the VM to a cloud that has special characters in its name.

Original product version:   System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
Original KB number:   2690609

Symptoms

The Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Create Virtual Machine Wizard may fail to create a new virtual machine when attempting to deploy to a cloud that has special characters in its name. The following error will be displayed in the Virtual Machine Manager console:

VMM is unable to process one of the provided parameters for the cmdlet (New-SCVirtualMachine):
Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Cloud'. The argument is null. Supply a non-null argument and try the command again.
Try the operation again. If the issue persists, contact Microsoft Help and Support.
ID: 12416

Cause

This error can occur when attempting to deploy to a cloud that has square brackets in its name (such as [Test Cloud]).

Resolution

To resolve this error, navigate to VMs and Services, and then expand Clouds on the upper left-hand pane of the Virtual Machine Manager console to locate the cloud with square brackets in its name. Right-click the cloud and choose Properties. On the General tab, delete the brackets in the name of the cloud.

More information

This error doesn't occur with curly braces ({Test Cloud}).