VMware Communities > VMTN > VMware vSphere™ > VMware ESX™i 4 > Discussions
Up to Discussions in VMware ESX™i 4

This Question is Answered

1 "correct" answer available (10 pts)
6 Replies Last post: Jun 27, 2009 4:02 PM by DSTAVERT
Reply

error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4

Jun 26, 2009 2:43 PM

Click to view aaron465's profile Novice aaron465 5 posts since
May 21, 2009
Hi,

I have recently bought a brand new HP ProLiant ML110 (G5) for my VMware environment at home - which is going great so far http://communities.vmware.com/images/emoticons/grin.gif


I have successfully migrated 2 windows server 2008 virtual machines from my old Vmware Server 2 (running on ubuntu server 64-bit) by just copying the virtual hard disks across and creating new virtual machines with those disks on the new box. I have a third 2008 VM which is having some issues though. When you try to boot up the virtual machine the vSphere client displays the following message:


"Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/blah.../File Server/os/FileServer.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: Broken pipe."


This disk was working perfectly fine just this morning on the old box, so I am unsure as to why it has failed. Below is the contents of the .vmdk file - I cannot see anything obviously wrong with it at the moment, but I have not been on the virtualisation bandwagon for very long, and am far from an expert in it http://communities.vmware.com/images/emoticons/silly.gif

  1. Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="UTF-8"
CID=540e3393
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="twoGbMaxExtentSparse"

  1. Extent description
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s001.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s002.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s003.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s004.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s005.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s006.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s007.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s008.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s009.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s010.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s011.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "File Server-s012.vmdk"
RW 24576 SPARSE "File Server-s013.vmdk"

  1. The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "7"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 90 58 26 ac 7e-55 a7 bf ee d1 05 08 ff"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "3133"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
ddb.toolsVersion = "7397"

I have attached the file aswell because this forum converts the number signs to actual numbers!

Any advice on this situation would be great,


Thanks - Aaron Trout

Attachments:
Tags: esx4i, error, vmdk, broken_pipe
Reply Re: error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4 Jun 26, 2009 3:48 PM
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso DSTAVERT 2,181 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
Did your server install have any uncommitted snapshots? Post your vmx from the old server.
Reply Re: error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4 Jun 26, 2009 3:53 PM
in response to: DSTAVERT
Click to view aaron465's profile Novice aaron465 5 posts since
May 21, 2009

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply. The VM on the old server did not have any snapshots, if I am using snapshots I always remove them after I am done. Also unfortunately I do not have the original vmx file, but if you just wanted to confirm there were no snapshots, I have never made a snapshot from this machine as it is only a file server (with DFS) and also has IIS & MySQL/PHP. There are two other virtual disks (which seem to be working) on this VM aswell if that means anything.

Thanks,

Aaron

Reply Re: error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4 Jun 26, 2009 4:59 PM
in response to: aaron465
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso DSTAVERT 2,181 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
If you can, watch the log files on the ESXi host while you start the VM. See if there is anything helpful. Get to the real time logs ALT+F12

You could try running converter against the VM. Run against the running machine on server with the destination as ESXi host.
Reply Re: error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4 Jun 27, 2009 3:41 PM
in response to: DSTAVERT
Click to view aaron465's profile Novice aaron465 5 posts since
May 21, 2009

Hi,

The logs were not really that useful, but I had an idea - which was to use WinImage to convert the virtual disk files from a vmware disk to a vmware disk. This actually worked, even though it sounds like it would do nothing. I think the reason that the disks were broken was from me trying to shrink them using vmware tools from inside the virtual machine. The firs time i tried this the vmware tools process crashed, so probably left something on the disk corrupt. This still doesn't explain why they still worked on the old vmware server 2 box, but oh well - its working now!

Thanks for all your help

Aaron

Reply Re: error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4 Jun 27, 2009 3:59 PM
in response to: aaron465
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso DSTAVERT 2,181 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
Glad it's working.

Have fun. ;)
Reply Re: error: broken pipe on virtual disk in esxi4 Jun 27, 2009 4:02 PM
in response to: DSTAVERT
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso DSTAVERT 2,181 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
Converter would probably have worked as well. If you haven't, download it. Great tool for copying, semi hot moving etc.
Actions
Up to Discussions in VMware ESX™i 4