Filename <unspecified filename> was not found

[sdietz]

Hi All,

Unfortunately my first post has to be one of HELP!! S.O.S!! I am running ESXi 4.0. I was making some changes to the partitions on a VM last night. I screwed everything up and was unable to boot to the VM. I had downloaded a copy of the VM files to my local computer before I made any changes and screwed up the VM. After waiting 12 hours for all the files to upload to the datastore, I keep getting the "Filename was not found" error while trying to power on. I have the following files backuped:

.vmdk

.vmx

.vmsd

.nvram

.vmxf

I've tried creating a brand new VM and then moving the original .vmdk file to that folder on the datastore and still was getting same error.

Any help is VERY appreciated.

Thanks!

[sdietz]

I forgot to mention I have the server-flat.vmdk file

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Would you be able to describe the partition changes you made last night and what changes you made when you copied it to your PC? Do you still have an original copy before you downloaded it?

I would suggest starting with this.

1. Post of copy of the vmware.log file that is created when you start the VM.

2. Create a new VM, edit and delete the virtual HD for it.

3. Copy the old vmdk to the new VM folder with vmkfstools (i.e. you'll make a copy of the oldest virtual disk file that you have). vmkfstools will make a copy of both the vmdk and flat.vmdk. The vmdk file is plain text and described the format, size, etc for flat.vmdk. Flat.vmdk contains the actual HD data.

4. After you make the copy, edit the VM and add a virtual disk (use the existing disk file option and select the new copy of the vmdk that you just created).

5. Try to power on the VM. If you still get errors we can look at the vmware.log file for it.

Did you take any snapshots when you were doing your work?




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[f10]

You have the virtual disk with the data(flat.vmdk) however for a VM to read this virtual disk a descriptor file is required(vm.vmdk). To recreate this descriptor file follow the steps mentioned in article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002511

Once this VMDK is created, create a new VM with the same config i.e. CPU, memory and NIC and add this existing VMDK and you should be good to go

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

f10

VCP3,VCP4,HP UX CSA

[sdietz]

Can you please explain a little more about steps 2 and 4, in regards to deleting the virtual HD?

Thanks,

[sdietz]

Please dis-regard my last comment. I was able to follow the KB artile. Attached is my log when I try to power on the VM, it's gets 95% power and then errors out with the same file name not found. I've attached the error part of the log. It's looking for a -flat-000001.vmdk file which I do not have any more.

Thanks

[f10 · Accepted solution]

Aaccording to the error

Aug 03 12:53:27.259: vmx| http://msg.disk.noBackEnd Cannot open the disk 'Enterprise 2003-000001.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

The VM is configured to boot from Enterprise 2003-000001.vmdk but does not find this disk.

Is this virtual disk available in the virtual machine folder ?

If yes create a new snapshot and try to delete all to commit the data on the snapshot to the base disk.

If there is not file in the virtual machine folder, edit the virtual machine configuration file(.vmx) and replace 'Enterprise 2003-000001.vmdk with 'Enterprise 2003.vmdk

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

f10

VCP3,VCP4,HP UX CSA

[sdietz]

@f10 - you are a lifesaver my friend. I have it booted up now and running. I appear to have lost about 20gigs of data but that is more my fault because of the previous 'bad practices' I had with snapshots and backing up the VM files.

Thanks again!

[sdietz]

I do have one more question. Now that the VM is up and powered on, is it possible to restore it to a snapshot file that I have saved on my local desktop?

Thanks,

[f10]

I am not quite clear about restoring the snapshot file on the desktop, do u mean to use Enterprise 2003-000001.vmdk which was probably unlinked from the VM to get it powered on ?

Well if the VM had a snapshot file earlier and was unlinked to power on the VM and if there have been an writes to the base disk then it would be difficult to add the snapshot file back.

Please provide the information requested above and then we will proceed further.

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

f10

VCP3,VCP4,HP UX CSA

[sdietz]

Sorry about the confussion. I was able to recover some, but not all of the files associated with the VM. I have these files available:

Server-Snapshot15.vmsn (Last snapshot I took before all problems).

Server-000003-delta.vmdk (I don't have 000001-delta and 0000002-delta files)

I'm just curious if there is any chance to restore the lost data on the hard drive. Previous to this event, I thought all data was saved on the -flat.vmdk file and didn't understand the delta files.

Thanks again for the help.

[f10]

When a snapshot is created all the data is written on the delta.vmdk files and 00000.vmdk is a descriptor file. Now in this case we dont have 00001 and 00002.vmdk or delta files but we do have 0000003.vmdk files.

What is the size of 000003.delta.vmdk if its less than 16Mb it can be discarded. If the size is greater and you would want to recover the data then we would have to check the CID and PID on the vm.vmdk and vm-000003.vmdk. the CID for vm.vmdk should be the PID for 000003.vmdk, CID for 000003.vmdk could be anything.

Once this is done you would have to consolidate snapshots using Delete All to but be careful. Let say we have written ABC on the base disk and then took snapshot and written CD on 000003.vmdk. You have now unlinked the snapshot and powered on the VM without snapshot and written EFG on the base disk. Now if you try to consolidate snapshot then there might be some data corruption because te sequence for A to G wouldnt me met.

I hope this is not too confusing ensure that there is a full back before you try any of these steps. Good Luck

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

f10

VCP3,VCP4,HP UX CSA

http://kb.vmware.com/

[sdietz]

The 0000003-delta file is 24MB. I think I understand what you are describing here. The CID for the server.vmdk file should "link" to the PID of the most recent delta file? I am a little confussed about the snapshots part. Do I find out what the PID on the 000003-delta file is and then change the CID on the server.vmdk file to the same number? After that is completed, do I try power on the machine?

[f10]

Yes you got it right, The CID for the server.vmdk file should "link" to the PID of the most recent delta file. And if you find that the PID needs to be changed you can do this while the VM is online you dont need to power off the VM. Once the PID is changed for the 000003.vmdk goto snapshot manager and create a new snapshot and check the CID and PID relationship right from virtual disk

server.vmdk

CID=1

PID=fff

server-000001.vmdk

PID=1

CID=2

Server-000002.vmdk

PID=2

CID=3

and so on ....

Refer to http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007849 it explains about CID and PID in details and im sure its gonna help. FYI the delta file is only 24MB i.e. 8MB of data so consider this before you start working on deleting snapshots.

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

Arun Pandey

Technical Support Engineer

VMware Inc.

VCP3,VCP4,HP UX CSA

http://kb.vmware.com/

[sdietz]

It appears I am missing the vmdk (descriptor file) for the delta file so I can not get the CID. Is there a way to recreate a that descriptor file? I have the CID of the base disk.

Also, not sure if this will help. I found the original .vmsd file for the VM. I have snapshot15.vmsn and 000003-delta.vmdk as mentioned before. I used generic names for both the snapshot and vmdk file names.

snapshot2.file="Snapshot15.vmsn"

snapshot2.parent="14"

snapshot2.disk0.fileName = "Server-000003.vmdk"

Thanks for all the help so far.

[sdietz]

The matching up the parentCID did work. The KB article was very helpful, but situation was a little different as I was missing both snapshot1 and snapshot2.

Here is another discussion that helped me along the way: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1586015

Thanks again for all your help!

[f10]

I am glad to hear that the recommendations provided by me were helpful. We are all learning here so keep us posted with your queries