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DrWhy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-28-2015 11:20 AM

Cancelling a Snapshot Deletion Task Currupts Your VM

Here is the problem I have ran into on ESXi6 (latest version as of 7-28-15): 

  1. I have a large snapshot on a VM.  600GB to be exact. 
  2. I attempted to delete all snapshots on this machine. 
  3. This process was taking 48+hrs so I decided to cancel this task. 
  4. After cancelling the task, within 30 seconds the task showed as completed.... that's odd.
  5. The VM Won't power on
  6. The VM need consolidation
  7. I attempt to consolidate the VM and get the following error.
    1. "An error occurred while consolidating disks: The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created. The content ID of the parent virtual disk does not match the corresponding parent content ID in the child."
  8. The the settings of VM, the original hard disk now shows a red warning indicator and the size of that disk is 0MB.

Lesson learned =  Don't cancel a snapshot deletion task while it's in progress.  Can this be repaired?  Is this a bug in VMware?

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6 Replies
abhilashhb
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎07-28-2015 12:01 PM

See if this KB is of any help

VMware KB: Resolving the CID mismatch error: The parent virtual disk has been modified since the chi...

Abhilash B
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhilashhb/

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Mahiee
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-28-2015 12:30 PM

Yes - abhilashhb specified KB is the right/direct solution for your issue.

Will you confirm - Is that effected VM is allowing you to do SVmotion & check the Original vHDD size by any chance ?

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DrWhy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-28-2015 12:59 PM

I saw that article but I can't determine what extension or where the disk descriptor is located. 

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Mahiee
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-28-2015 01:31 PM

Do you have any insight on ESXi cmd line or powershell scripting - then it would be easier to find out.

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DrWhy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-28-2015 02:38 PM

very basic.  What file am I looking for and where is it located?

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Mahiee
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-28-2015 03:45 PM

That File called 'Descriptor File' which you will get in VM associated DataStore browser, there you can see virtual disks are made up of two files, a large data file equal to the size of the virtual disk and a small text disk is descriptor file.

FYI - When a virtual machine is powered on, the referenced base or delta disk descriptor file's CID value will be changed.

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