ESXi 6.0 Update 2 migration to ESXi 6.5 VM Snapshot Issue

[TimMcManus]

I had an ESXi host running 6.0 update 2 go down.  I replaced it with a host running ESXi 6.5.  I had to pull the SSD drive out of the 6.0u2 host and connect it via USB to the 6.5 host.  I used the web-based UI to move the VM from the USB VMFS 5 datastore to the new VMFS 6 datastore.  That operation worked without an issue.

However, when I registered the VM with 6.5 and tried to open it, it asked me if I Moved it or Copied it.  So I told it that I Moved it.  The VM will no launch because the feature is not supported.  I check the state of the vmdk files and snapshots in the esxcli tool, and everything reported back healthy.  But the VM will not boot because of the "this feature is not supported" error.

So I copied the VM to another directory and this time said I Copied it instead of Moved it.  The VM booted but none of the snapshots were available.  The machine was in the original state.

I went back to the Moved VM and tried to Consolidate the snapshots.  Again, the feature was not supported.  I tried to delete the snapshots; feature not supported.

I couldn't find anything in the KBs that would resolve the issue because I cannot perform any kind of snapshot activity on the snapshots.  All of the snapshot vmdk files are okay, I checked all of them.

So I'm at a loss as to why snapshots are not supported in 6.5, and I'm not sure how to consolidate the snapshots and get them working on 6.5.  Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

[a_p_]

Not sure what exactly is causing the issue.

Anyway, what be worth trying, is to:

• ensure that the VM has no references to inaccessible files (e.g. an .iso image for its virtual CD-ROM drive)
• unregister the VM from the host's inventory, delete existing .vmsd, .vmem, and .vmsn files, then register it again

If the latter works, create another snapshot for the VM, and then run "Delete All" to get rid of all the VM's active snapshots (assuming you have sufficient free disk sapce).

André

[TimMcManus · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I resolved this issue, and not in a way that I expected.

I went through all of the files in the VM, and they were all formatted correctly but the VM would not recognize or work with the snapshots.

So I downloaded the VM using VMWare Fusion Pro for the Mac.  Once the VM was on the Mac I got rid of the snapshots, updated the VM version, and compressed the VM.  It booted fine on the Mac in VMware Fusion Pro, so I uploaded it back up to the ESXi box.  It booted up the first time without any issue.

I found it very odd that downloading it to the Mac would have any positive effect, but it did.  There was nothing that the 6.5 web UI could do and I could not accomplish the same thing in the CLI on the ESXi host either.  It was very frustrating to say the least.  Had I not had the Mac, I probably would not have been able to resolve this issue and was looking at how I could restore the older host to 6.0 and attempt to clean it up there.

Just wanted to close this thread with a resolution in case someone else gets stuck with the same issue.