Unable to power on VM - invalid argument

[huwy]

hi there,

we are running a 3 host ESXi 5.0 cluster with a SAN

We had a power failure and some vms failed to come back online. In virtual center they were listed as (invalid).

I tried removing and re-adding the VMs to the inventory but the VM will not power up giving the error:

An unexpected error was received from the ESX host while powering on VM vm-4811.

Reason: 0 (Invalid argument).

Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/504dfb2f-80fd108d-3e52-d067e5f18769/INT-Training/INT-Training.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

I then tried creating a new VM and specifying to use an existing disk - same error.

I then tried restoring the VM from a SAN replica to a seperate DR server from before the power failure but again I can't start it due to "invalid argument".

I've also tried deleting the vswp file but get "device or resource busy"

I've attached some files from the restored VM - can anyone help with this? I really need to get this VM up and running!

Cheers,

Al

[onoski]

Is there a enough disk space on the datastore hosting this VM? I would check this and make sure there is a enough space etc.

[continuum]

AIOMgr_Open failed. Type 3

- that sounds familiar.

In my experience there is no way to recue the /INT-Training/INT-Training-flat.vmdk' as long as you run ESXi.

Very likely you already tried:
- follow kb tips to remove stale logs
- clone the vmdk with vmkfstools
- clone the VM with vMotion or Clone Function
- WinSCP / fastSCP
- Converter

The file appears like it is uncopyable.

Do I guess right ?

I use a Linux LiveCD that I made especially for this tasks and boot the ESXi into it.

http://sanbarrow.com/mcs-esxi5-recovery-X-001.iso

Most of the times I was able to copy a working flat.vmdk
Sometimes with minor damage which could be fixed from inside the guest.

If you really have the same problem I would prepare myself for a downtime of that LUN while you copy out the affected vmdk from a LiveCD.
Such a copy can take whole nights - last case I had I needed 6 hours for a 50Gb file ...

Please check more of your vmware.logs for the string AIOMgr_Open failed. Type 3

[huwy]

Yep you guess exactly right. I cannot copy, clone, snapshot or do anything with those files - is this a bug in ESXi?

As the servers are in a remote office I was thinking of creating a linux VM and directly accessing the (iscsi) SAN. Hopefully this should allow me to copy the vmdk's off.

Will keep you posted. Thanks for your help.

-H

[huwy]

hi there,

I have tried booting off a LiveCD but am struggling to get it talking to the SAN (we are using iscsi).

I've tried to set the IP address to be on the iSCSI network but cannot save the changes back (presumably because its booted from a CD).

Can you help with this also?

I've also tried using the open vmfs driver on a windows server but this keeps dropping the connection whilst trying to download the VMDK.

Cheers,

H

[huwy]

I am open to the idea of a paid support call BTW 🙂

[continuum]

call me via skype - my nic is sanbarrow

I'll be back in a few hours from now

I would not use the Windows VMFS driver - the Linux version is way more reliable

[admin]

hi  continuum:

I faced the same problem in ESX4 but no idea how to solve it. The disk contains some critical data but failed to cp/mv/edit. Could you give me some help how to resolve it except of the LiveCD?

[Arun203]

Did you tried the vmware KB 1004232, that worked for me once

[admin]

seems not the exact the same problem， we can't search the error information like the KB mentioned. Thanks