https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/restoring-vmware-guest-directly-esx-server

Restoring a VMware guest directly to an ESX server
Question & Answer

Question
A VM guest backed up using a vCenter server needs to be restored to an alternate or standalone ESX server directly. Can this be done using the RESTORE VM command?

Answer
In the manual page about the 'datacenter' option for the Tivoli Storage Manager client the following information can be read:

"If you are restoring through a ESX server rather than a virtual center, the -datacenter=ha-datacenter option should be used."

The word 'ha-datacenter' is used to specify to the client that no vCenter server is to be used in the restore command.
Pay also attention that the same target ESX host referenced in the '-host' option will also be used for authentication in the -vmchost option.
The user referenced for the -vmcuser option needs to have sufficient privileges to perform a VM guest restore on the ESX host. Usually the admin user 'root' is used.
All options settings used on the command line will override any setting for the same options from the client option file.

So, to restore a VM guest to a standalone ESX server where there is no vCenter server in the environment, the following command should be used:

dsmc restore VM <source VM name> -vmname=<target VM name> -host=<target ESX host> -datacenter=ha-datacenter -datastore=<target datastore> -vmchost=<target ESX host> -vmcuser=<user> -vmcpw=<password>

Note:
It is very important that DNS lookup is working. DNS is OK when ALL of the following commands, executed from the vStorage backup proxy host from which the restore command will be run, return the same FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name):

nslookup <ESX host ip address>
nslookup <ESX host ip short host name>
nslookup <ESX host FQDN>

The following values need to be used:

vmchost: the name of the ESX server where you want to restore the VM to. This name needs to be resolvable with DNS, and usually is the FQDN, e.g. esxi1.domain.corp.com
host: the name of the ESXi host as it is known to the vCenter:
using 'dsmc show vm all', check for the 'esxhost' field
using the vCenter web GUI, check the 'hostname' in the 'hosts and cluster' view