Unable to backup VM on vSphere 5.5

TheSilentAdmin · ‎10-03-2015

Hi everyone,

on an ESXi 5.5 host I am puzzled by a problem with backing up a VM. The backup, usually perfomed by Backup Exec vRay-Edition fails, because the creation of snapshots fails on one single virtual machine.

The problem occurs when the VM's filesystem is to be quiesced. During the backup process, the error message is "An operation required the virtual to quiesce and the virtual machine was unable to continue running". Then the VM crashes and has to be started manually, again.

When trying to create a snapshot with quiesced filesystem manually, the same error occurs and the VM crahses as well. If I try to create a snapshot while the VM is shut down, the error message is "the file could not be accessed".

The are currently no snapshots present in the configuration or in the datastore.

I tried to sreach the VM's vmware.log file for additional information, however, although the file shows a size of roughly 200kb, it is absolutely empty, when being opened in an editor. Deleting the vmware.log file and letitng the VM create a new one, leads to the same result.

To be honest, I do not have the slightest idea what to do. Maybe one of the experts here can help me out.

Regards

Tobias

a_p_ · ‎10-03-2015

Are there other VM's on the same datastore?

Is it a VMFS5 formatted datstore?

What's the size of the VM's virtual disk(s)?

Please provide a list of files in the VM's folder (with names, extensions, sizes, and time stamps), and attach the VM's configuration (.vmx) file to a reply post. Maybe this file contains any hints!?

André

TheSilentAdmin · ‎10-03-2015

Good morning Andre,

yes, there are other VMs in the same datastore and it is formatted in VMFS5. The datastore is also accessed by more than one ESXi, however all other VMs can be vackup up without problems.

The VM consists of two virtual disks, one 100GB, the other 500GB in size. There are about 800GB free disk space remaining on the datastore.

I have attached a screenshot with the file list on the datstore. Please note that the virtual disk-files reside in another directory on the datastore, since I created the VM anew from scratch during my troubleshooting efforts.

Content of the .vmx~-file:

.encoding = "UTF-8"

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "8"

pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge4.functions = "8"

pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge5.functions = "8"

pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge6.functions = "8"

pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge7.functions = "8"

vmci0.present = "TRUE"

hpet0.present = "TRUE"

nvram = "WIN-EXCH01.nvram"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

powerType.powerOff = "soft"

powerType.powerOn = "hard"

powerType.suspend = "hard"

powerType.reset = "soft"

displayName = "WIN-EXCH01"

extendedConfigFile = "WIN-EXCH01.vmxf"

numvcpus = "4"

cpuid.coresPerSocket = "2"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0.sharedBus = "none"

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"

memsize = "16384"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "/vmfs/volumes/5202339c-2cd233a3-2fc4-5cf3fcb02f79/Exchange-Server/Exchange-Server.vmdk"

scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.fileName = "/vmfs/volumes/5202339c-2cd233a3-2fc4-5cf3fcb02f79/Exchange-Server/Exchange-Server_1.vmdk"

scsi0:1.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.clientDevice = "TRUE"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

ethernet0.networkName = "VM Network"

ethernet0.addressType = "vpx"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:50:56:b2:6e:11"

chipset.onlineStandby = "FALSE"

disk.EnableUUID = "TRUE"

guestOS = "windows7srv-64"

uuid.bios = "42 32 c1 3b 27 fe 6e e9-5a 58 4a f6 ce de dd b0"

vc.uuid = "50 32 13 80 51 d6 b9 c1-35 15 f6 bb 43 af d8 09"

snapshot.action = "keep"

sched.cpu.min = "0"

sched.cpu.units = "mhz"

sched.cpu.shares = "normal"

sched.mem.min = "0"

sched.mem.shares = "normal"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

uuid.location = "56 4d 39 b7 bf a8 3d 71-90 4e 08 05 17 0d f1 5a"

replay.supported = "FALSE"

sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/5202339c-2cd233a3-2fc4-5cf3fcb02f79/WIN-EXCH01/WIN-EXCH01-05196306.vswp"

replay.filename = ""

scsi0:0.redo = ""

scsi0:1.redo = ""

scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "160"

scsi0:0.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"

svga.vramSize = "8388608"

vmci0.id = "-824255056"

vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "33"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

cleanShutdown = "FALSE"

ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

unity.wasCapable = "FALSE"

pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"

pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"

pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"

pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"

pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"

scsi0.sasWWID = "50 05 05 6b 27 fe 6e e0"

hostCPUID.0 = "0000000d756e65476c65746e49656e69"

hostCPUID.1 = "000206d70020080017bee3ffbfebfbff"

hostCPUID.80000001 = "0000000000000000000000012c100800"

guestCPUID.0 = "0000000d756e65476c65746e49656e69"

guestCPUID.1 = "000206d700020800969822031fabfbff"

guestCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

userCPUID.0 = "0000000d756e65476c65746e49656e69"

userCPUID.1 = "000206d700200800169822031fabfbff"

userCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

evcCompatibilityMode = "FALSE"

vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "8388608"

softPowerOff = "TRUE"

tools.remindInstall = "TRUE"

Content of the vmxf-file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<VM>

I also attached the .VMDK description-files of the virtual disks.

Regards

Tobias

a_p_ · ‎10-04-2015

There's nothing in unusual the configuration file. The .vmdk files show "version=3" (see VMDK File Versions) which means that changed block tracking is enabled, but the entries for the CBT files are missing. So what you may try, is to see whether deleting the CBT ("...-ctk.vmdk") files helps. Note that deleting the CBT files (the VM needs to be powered off to delete these files) will result in a full backup during the next run.

It may also be worth trying to temporarily disable CBT for the VM to find out if this is causing the issue.

André

mohdhanifk · ‎10-08-2015

Hi,

Can you check this link and see whether this may help here ?

VMware KB: Cannot take a quiesced snapshot of Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine

TheSilentAdmin · ‎10-14-2015

Hi mohdhanifk,

I tried, but I am still experiencing the same error in vCenter where it tells me an erro ocurred whuile trying to quiesce the VM, and still the VM crashes.

Do you think that consolidating the VM's disks might help, and should I backup the VMDK-Flat files manually before I do so ?

Regards

Tobias

All

Unable to backup VM on vSphere 5.5