Problem with VM on VSAN

[billdossett]

Hi,  I've got one, maybe two, VMs on my VSAN and apparently there is something wrong with them.

Focus on the first one as I have exhausted my knowledge of how to fix this.

The VM is working fine.  It has no issues powering down and back up.  There are no warnings or issues with hit.  The problem is that I can't back it  up.

I have tried backing it up with NetVault,  tried exporting an OVF and also tried cloning it.  They all fail saying there is a problem with the VMDK.

Looking for tools that can analyze the vmdk at this point.  I only have the single VSAN datastore in this case.  Usual cure on standard SAN setup would be to vmotion to another LUN as that seemed to fix most problems with VMDKs.

Would like to get this to this last item backed up somehow before I upgrade.

Thanks

Bill

[TheBobkin]

Hello Bill,

Does the backup fail instantly or after some time (and creating some data)?

Are the backing vmdk Objects healthy from a vSAN perspective and compliant with their applied SP(Storage Policy)? (and does this SP have checksum enabled)

Is the vmdk(s) >2TB?

Are the Objects 1MB aligned? (e.g when you look at the 'Hard Disk' under Edit Settings does it show 200.015238983434 GB or 200 GB).

Anything else distinctive about them e.g. IDE, non-standard mode or virtual-controller?

Have you tried vmkfstools -i (-W vsan) cloning the disks?

If Object-level clone is failing, have you in Guest-OS level file cloning to a new VM? There are some handy tools I have seen in the past used to do this live with the VM up.​

​Bob

[billdossett]

I've actually started to move the data off of it to another VM to be on the safe side.  I will check all the items you list above.  No it does not fail immediately on the export ovf, the clone, or the backup.. it does transfer some data and then fails.  Its a 2008 server that I want to retire anyway, but I will  poke it a bit and see if your things to check can fix it.

Thanks

Bill