Unable to add VM with snapshot in inventory

[Safiqul]

Hi,

  I have a VM running on ESX 4. Suddenly found that the VM is not running properly - not responding. And tried to power off but the task got hung after 95%. Then we restarted the vmware management service from ESX and removed the VM from inventory. The vm was running with a snapshot. But now while trying to register the VM back to inventory it is creating a VM "Unknown" and nothing is there - no disk, no conf file and properties at all.

Tried to modify the vmx file and fix the issue but no luck. Now, is there any way to use the disk with snapshot in a newly created VM, so that I can get all my data.

regards,

-Safi

[a_p_]

... and nothing is there - no disk, no conf file and properties at all.

What exactly does this mean? Don't you see any files in the VM's folder on the datastore?

Please provide a list of all files in the VM's folder, showing names, extensions, sizes and time stamps. If there are any .log,  .vmx or .vmsd files in the VM's folder, please attach them to your next post.

André

[Safiqul]

Hi Andre',

Thanks for your response. All the files are present but while registering the VM back to inventory is it creating a VM "Unknown" and that is not linked to the config files at all. These are the files present in the datastore.

-rw------- 1 root root 34494060544 Dec  6 11:16 <VM_Name>-000001-delta.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root         333 Dec  3 14:58 <VM_Name>-000001.vmdk
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root          13 Dec  3 14:54 <VM_Name>-aux.xml
-rw------- 1 root root  4294967296 Nov  6 20:01 <VM_Name>-c6ac4d79.vswp
-rw------- 1 root root 53687091200 Sep 21 15:45 <VM_Name>-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root        8684 Dec  6 11:43 <VM_Name>.nvram
-rw------- 1 root root       28654 Sep 21 15:46 <VM_Name>-Snapshot1.vmsn
-rw------- 1 root root         480 Dec  3 14:53 <VM_Name>.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root         936 Dec  3 14:57 <VM_Name>.vmsd
-rw------- 1 root root         269 Sep 22 15:49 <VM_Name>.vmxf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root        3173 Dec  6 19:54 <VM_Name>.vmx
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      216717 Sep 14 16:05 vmware-1.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      288413 Sep 21 15:45 vmware-2.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      106335 Sep 22 13:45 vmware-3.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      131122 Sep 22 15:46 vmware-4.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      606284 Nov  6 06:45 vmware-5.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      258351 Dec  6 11:44 vmware.log

[john23]

Can you check aux.xml file? what is the state of this file?

[Safiqul]

Hi John,

  Checked that file and found that entry only "<ConfigRoot/>" The file is attached herewith for your reference.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

To me this looks like the power off did not work properly and with removing the VM from the inventory something is left over.

Are you able to successfully run touch <VM_Name>-c6ac4d79.vswp (or delete the .vswp file). Maybe there's still some process accessing any of the VM's files. Is there any chance you can reboot the ESX host!? Btw. are you running a stand alone host or is it part of a vCenter Server environment?

Another option would be to create a new folder on the datastore and clone the virtual disk. This way you could also get rid of the snapshot.

vmkfstools -i <VM_Name>-000001.vmdk ../new-folder/<VM_Name>.vmdk

Then create a new virtual maching using the cloned virtual disk instead of creating a new one.

André

[Safiqul]

Thanks a ton.

Really it is a great help. Now everything is working fine.

[john23]

Which option of ap suggestion worked for you...would be helpful ..