While trying to expand the hard drive of our virtual Ubuntu Server I accidentally it.
Since its field of service was expanded I wanted to expand the disk size from 10 GB to 50 GB using "vmkfstools".
Well, to be sure, I shut down the Server and tried to used the command on the latest Snapshot, "UbuntuServer-000008.vmdk".
I got an error that snapshots can't be expanded I used the command on the shut down "UbuntuServer.vmdk" and it worked.
So I powered up the VM and got an error "The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created (18)" and realized, I did something stupid...
Googling the error message I found this article, suggesting to repair the CIDs and parent CIDs in the VMDK-Files of the initial HD and snapshots, however, the CIDs of my server form an unbroken chain.
In the Log file I found this entry:
Jun 24 16:52:17.785: vmx| DISK: OPEN scsi0:0 '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000008.vmdk' persistent R[]
Jun 24 16:52:17.790: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000008-delta.vmdk" : open successful (10) size = 637556736, hd = 837320818. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.790: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000008-delta.vmdk" (0xa)
Jun 24 16:52:17.791: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000008.vmdk' (0xa): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.792: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000007-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 285235200, hd = 2843394163. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.793: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000007-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.793: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000007.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.794: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000006-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 654333952, hd = 2362376308. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.794: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000006-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.795: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000006.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.796: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000005-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 218126336, hd = 7275004021. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.796: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000005-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.796: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000005.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.797: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000003-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 1224759296, hd = 192348278. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.798: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000003-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.798: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000003.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.799: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000002-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 201349120, hd = 18759799. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.799: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000002-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.800: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000002.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.801: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000004-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 1392531456, hd = 3078193272. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.801: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000004-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.801: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000004.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.802: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000001-delta.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 6610245632, hd = 1925628025. Type 8
Jun 24 16:52:17.803: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-000001-delta.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.803: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-000001.vmdk' (0xe): vmfsSparse, 20971520 sectors / 10 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.804: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer-flat.vmdk" : open successful (14) size = 53687091200, hd = 1493631098. Type 3
Jun 24 16:52:17.805: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "UbuntuServer-flat.vmdk" (0xe)
Jun 24 16:52:17.805: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/4bf61eaa-e8518c68-bf8a-001b215d2ef4/UbuntuServer/UbuntuServer.vmdk' (0xe): vmfs, 104857600 sectors / 50 GB.
Jun 24 16:52:17.805: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : Attach: the capacity of each link is different (104857600 != 20971520).
So the ESX can't load the snapshot because the capacity has been changed.
Searching with the new information I found this article, stating the the VMDK-files must be changed.
But how do I know which values I need to use? It isn't stated how the values are calculated...
How do I get my Virtual Machine back into a workable state?
