I can't manually hot-add one snapshot vmdk file to another VM.

[McNet]

Hi.

Due to a backup issue, (hot-add jobs fail over to network mode), Veeam support suggest me to try to add a snapshot disk manually.

I did the next steps:

- Take one snapshot.

- Edit settings of another VM.

- Add existing disk (Independent/Non persistent). (Selecting the vmdk generated by the snapshot)

Always the same error:

2014-02-06T10:37:21.922Z| vmx| I120: AIOMGR: AIOMgr_OpenWithRetry: Descriptor file '/vmfs/volumes/c3b7ee43-70d6b515/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou-000001-delta.vmdk' locked (try 4)

2014-02-06T10:37:32.230Z| vmx| I120: AIOGNRC: Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/c3b7ee43-70d6b515/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou-000001-delta.vmdk' : Failed to lock the file (40003) (0x2013).

2014-02-06T10:37:32.230Z| vmx| I120: OBJLIB-FILEBE : FileBEOpen: can't open '/vmfs/volumes/c3b7ee43-70d6b515/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou-000001-delta.vmdk' : Failed to lock the file (262146).

2014-02-06T10:37:32.230Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/c3b7ee43-70d6b515/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou-000001-delta.vmdk" : failed to open (Failed to lock the file): ObjLib_Open failed. Type 8

2014-02-06T10:37:32.230Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-LINK  : "/vmfs/volumes/c3b7ee43-70d6b515/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou/vpsrv05 - timbratges nou-000001.vmdk" : failed to open (Failed to lock the file).

My VM's are located on a NFS 3 datastore.

Anyone have any idea about how to solve it ?

Thanks

[weinstein5]

Are you trying to commit the changes in the snapshot to a different virtual disk or are trying to open a snapshot on a different VM?

If it is the first that is not possible as the snapshot records the block level changes of the source disk so moving to another disk underlying blocks will be different.

If it is the second the snapshot disk is not a true 'VMDK' because it is just a record of the block changes - you will have to point the VM to the underlying virtual disk that is associated with snapshot -

[McNet]

Hi weinstwin5.

My veeam backup software can't hot-add vm disks for the backup and replica jobs. I'm trying to manually reproduce a "hot-add", in the same way than veeam software do.

I don't know why .vmdk snapshot files become blocked. This is not the usual way.

regards.

[ch1ta]

Have you tried to use different VM as a Hot Add proxy? May be the issue is related to the certain VM, not to the Hot Add functionality, in general.

Anyway, the manual Hot Add procedure is pretty good described in the following KB article:

KB1184: How to hot add VM disks manually via vSphere Client

If you follow the mentioned steps, and have some issues with them, it might be worth opening a ticket with VMware support team.

Cheers.

[McNet]

Hi ch1ta.

This is the procedure that I used to check it, veeam's support sent me the same link.

I'll try changing the hot add proxy, but I don't understand why for some disk works and others fail.

Regards

[ch1ta]

I've just noticed that you're using NFS as the underlying datastore. Thee problem you have seems to be related to the notoriously-known locking issues when using Hotadd with NFS datastores; see the following topic for more information regarding it:

Failed to open VDDK disk / Parallel processing | view topic

Anyway, switching to network mode should solve the issue.

Thanks.