Hi There,
I went to migrate a server this morning after VDP had finished its backup tasks and noticed that one of my VMs were showing their hard disks as 0B.
I removed these hard disks hoping to re-add them to the VM when trying to re-add no disks were listed in the VMs folder when browsing the datastore.
When manually searching the datastore these are the files listed:
SERVER-ctk.vmdk
SERVER-flat.vmdk
SERVER_1-000001-ctk.vmdk
SERVER_1-000001-delta.vmdk
SERVER_2-ctk.vmdk
SERVER_2-flat.vmdk
But NONE of these vmdk's are listed when trying to re-attach them to VM.
Can you anyone help me/point me in the right direction?
Much Appreciated
From the provided information, I created the missing descripter file for the snapshot/delta file, and modified the VM's configuration (.vmx) file.
What you need to do is:
Since the VM was powered on with the base disk, I strongly recommend to run a chkdsk to fix any possible data corruption.
After that - if everything works as expected - make sure you "Delete All" snapshots from the Snapshot Manager, provided you do have sufficent free disk space (up to ~300GB may be required).
André
Hi theire,
last time i had such similiar Issue with PHD Backup.
i got error : Disk chain is not consistent
for some Reason the CID's didn't matched anymore and the parent/Child where not correctly.
this was the Reason for me why i saw "0" Size on my Disks over vCenter. i had to fit the CID's from the highest Snapshot beginning.
Please have a look here, if is maybe same Problem.
Best regards
Max
According to the file list you posted, the virtual disks' descriptor files are missing (for whatever reason), and need to be recreated (see VMware KB: Recreating a missing virtual machine disk descriptor file). However, in your case the article might not completely solve the issue, because you also have a snapshot, and doing it wrong might cause data loss. Please compress/zip the VM's *.vmx file along with all the vmware*.log files, and attach the .zip file to a reply post to see whether they contain the required information to fix the VM. In addition to the files please run ls -lisa in the VM's folder and post the output.
André
Hey Andre',
I appreciate the response! I found that KB and re-created the descriptor files and my VMs boots! But alas not with the changes sitting in the snapshot! I do not have a backup of those changes and really need to consolidate that snapshot.
I have attached requested files.
Regards
Arun
[root@ESX1:/vmfs/volumes/55853e10-6adcc9a4-a7a8-b8ac6f8d430b/EFSFS1] ls -lisa
total 2482201624
222313924 8 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3780 Jul 4 11:48 .
4 1024 drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 2800 Jun 22 01:35 ..
155205060 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1-aux.xml
134233540 7168 -rw------- 1 root root 6554112 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1-ctk.vmdk
302005700 83495936 -rw------- 1 root root 107374182400 Jul 4 12:19 EFSFS1-flat.vmdk
327171524 1024 -rw------- 1 root root 8684 Jul 4 12:19 EFSFS1.nvram
805335428 0 -rw------- 1 root root 554 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1.vmdk
792752516 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 43 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1.vmsd
268451268 8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4422 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1.vmx
742420868 9216 -rw------- 1 root root 8389120 Jul 4 01:39 EFSFS1_1-000001-ctk.vmdk
734032260 392596480 -rw------- 1 root root 402017751040 Jul 4 01:39 EFSFS1_1-000001-delta.vmdk
310394308 758396928 -rw------- 1 root root 1099511627776 Jul 4 12:19 EFSFS1_1-flat.vmdk
813724036 0 -rw------- 1 root root 500 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1_1.vmdk
138427844 5120 -rw------- 1 root root 5033680 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1_2-ctk.vmdk
318782916 1247653888 -rw------- 1 root root 1319413952512 Jul 4 12:19 EFSFS1_2-flat.vmdk
822112644 0 -rw------- 1 root root 560 Jul 4 12:39 EFSFS1_2.vmdk
465596804 8 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1400 Jul 4 03:29 old
624980356 30720 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30873124 Jul 4 01:39 vmware-1.log
67137924 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 66640 Jul 4 11:19 vmware-2.log
209744260 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 316241 Jul 4 11:47 vmware-3.log
809516484 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 287531 Jul 4 12:19 vmware-4.log
826293700 1024 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 66838 Jul 4 12:36 vmware.log
Not sure what's causing it, but I cannot download/open the .zip file. Please create a new one and attach it to another reply. Also include the descriptor .vmdk file(s) which you re-created.
Did you power off the VM immediately after you saw the old content?
Just to make sure, are all the virtual disks thin provisioned?
André
Hi Andre,
I have reattached another zip file including descriptor .vmdk files.
I did power down the VM after realising there was old content.
If the zip file does not work here is a link to a folder in dropbox where you can obtain them.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eias50ehpwnvefi/AADzVwk47x0rH-rSmDcGl1_Ha?dl=0
EFSFS1 & EFSFS1_1 are thin provisioned (size on disk is less than reported in VM settings) and EFSFS1_2 is thick..
Thank you
Arun
From the provided information, I created the missing descripter file for the snapshot/delta file, and modified the VM's configuration (.vmx) file.
What you need to do is:
Since the VM was powered on with the base disk, I strongly recommend to run a chkdsk to fix any possible data corruption.
After that - if everything works as expected - make sure you "Delete All" snapshots from the Snapshot Manager, provided you do have sufficent free disk space (up to ~300GB may be required).
André
Hey Andre,
This has worked! Thank you so much for your all of your help!
Cheers
Arun