topic VMs failed to start after moving Datafile to a new datastore in VMTN Global Forums Discussions

VMs failed to start after moving Datafile to a new datastore

Siverian — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 17:01:48 GMT

Dear all

I get stacked to start my Virtual Machines after moving datafile to a new datastore i get the following message.

File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen[file] failed
The file specified is not a virtual disk
Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/5c5edece-ed637474-39d3-782bcb4023be/e-office/e-office-000001.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
Module 'Disk' power on failed.
Failed to start the virtual machine.

Re: VMs failed to start after moving Datafile to a new datastore

a_p_ — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 18:37:33 GMT

I'm actually not very surprised that you receive this message.

How exactly did you move the files to the new datastore?

As a first step, please run ls -lisa from the command line in the VM's folder, and post the text output (no screenshot please).

André

Re: VMs failed to start after moving Datafile to a new datastore

Siverian — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 05:35:31 GMT

[root@Esxi65:/vmfs/volumes/5c5edece-ed637474-39d3-782bcb4023be/e-office] ls -lisa

total 1102135312

499144772 8 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2660 Sep 13 07:27 .

4 1024 drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1400 Sep 12 10:48 ..

515921988 11488256 -rw------- 1 root root 11762929664 Sep 12 11:04 e-office-000001-delta.vmdk

503339076 0 -rw------- 1 root root 321 Sep 12 15:58 e-office-000001.vmdk

570447940 16777216 -rw------- 1 root root 17179869184 Sep 12 18:31 e-office-Snapshot1.vmem

528504900 6144 -rw------- 1 root root 5543842 Sep 12 11:04 e-office-Snapshot1.vmsn

532699204 1073741824 -rw------- 1 root root 1099511627776 Sep 13 07:27 e-office-flat.vmdk

507533380 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 8684 Sep 13 07:27 e-office.nvram

520116292 0 -rw------- 1 root root 528 Sep 13 07:26 e-office.vmdk

511727684 0 -rw------- 1 root root 389 Sep 12 10:48 e-office.vmsd

562059332 8 -rw------- 1 root root 3132 Sep 13 07:27 e-office.vmx

620779588 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 57471 Sep 12 18:40 vmware-18.log

637556804 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 58715 Sep 12 18:43 vmware-19.log

654334020 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 230668 Sep 12 19:05 vmware-20.log

671111236 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 281369 Sep 12 19:19 vmware-21.log

687888452 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 61495 Sep 12 19:25 vmware-22.log

704665668 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 58086 Sep 13 07:23 vmware-23.log

721442884 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 227814 Sep 13 07:27 vmware.log

541087812 112640 -rw------- 1 root root 115343360 Sep 12 18:23 vmx-e-office-2455042451-1.vswp

Re: VMs failed to start after moving Datafile to a new datastore

a_p_ — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 15:10:27 GMT

From the files' time stamps it looks like the base (flat) virtual disk has been touched at a later time than the snapshot (delta) disk, which is not good.

Anyway. you didn't answer the question? In case you moved the files to a VMFS6 datastore, you will have to move them back to a VMFS5 datastore, since VMFS6 doesn't support delta files anymore. VMFS uses the new sesparse format for snapshots, which differs from that of delta files.

Also make sure that the snapshot chain is still ok, i.e. that the "parentCID" in "e-office-000001.vmdk" matches the "CID" in "e-office.vmdk". In doubt, attach (don't paste) the two mentioned .vmdk files along with the latest vmware.log to a reply post.

André