Failed to Deploy OVF package: A general system error occurred: Failed to write to C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\journal\1433426209.11: Error writing file. There is not enough space on the disk.

[rickyj001]

Hello,

I am attempting to set up a Hortonworks sandbox on our VSphere 5.5 lab environment.  We have deployed many times before and have had various problems, but this is a new one to me.

After selecting the OVA file from my local disk within the File/Deploy OVF Template wizard, and selecting where to store the VM (we use SAN), it errors out after I click "Finish" with the error "Failed to Deploy OVF package: A general system error occurred: Failed to write to C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\journal\1433426209.11: Error writing file.  There is not enough space on the disk."

I don't know why it is trying to write a journal file to my local workstation, but at any rate the path referenced in the error did not exist.  I tried creating those folders but the same error was returned.

Note that this is a 5.41 GB OVA file and the local disk on my workstation has 244 GB free.

I then tried adding additional permissions (Users did not have Write) but it still threw the error.  I noticed that the file properties page for the OVA showed it as blocked since it came from a different computer so I unblocked it, but again had no luck with the deploy...same error.

I assume that the path is written during the conversion of a VM at Hortonworks to an OVA (Export?) but I have no idea how, or even if I could change it.  Or even if changing the path would help.

Has anyone else run into this issue and is there a work-around that you can provide?

Thanks is advance for any help,

Rick

[bradley4681 · Accepted solution]

You said that path didn't exist on your local workstation, check for that path on the vCenter server if its windows and check the free space there. If its the vCenter appliance check the free space on it as well by logging into the appliance management interface and looking at system disk utilization on the main page. The management components in vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi record transactions to journal files when tracking long-running operations.

The journal files for vCenter Server on Windows are located at:
Windows 2003 and earlier – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\journal\
Windows 2008 and later – %PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\journal\
Delete or archive the unnecessary files on this filesystem to free up disk space. Depending on your vCenter Server implementation, it is recommended to have a minimum of 40GB of disk space free on the system

[rickyj001]

Thank you for the very quick and completely accurate response!  The C drive of our VCenter server (VM) was full and unknown to anyone on the team.  Apparently we have to tweak our alerts!

Our deploy worked flawlessly this time...

Thanks again,

Rick