Unable to revert snapshot: Detected an invalid snapshot configuration

[2600HZ]

I am dealing with a situation where a VM on an ESXi 4.1 host (standalone, no vcenter server) had data loss after making changes to it and the snapshot cannot be restored due to the above error. Initially a snapshot was taken, the virtual disks were increased in size and the guest OS paritions were resized. After that a third virtual disk was removed and the files including the base vmdk were removed from the datastore. This disk was present during the snapshot creation. At that point an attempt was made to revert the snapshot. I have taken a look at the vmsd file and it does mention all 3 disks. I attempted to remove the lines related to the removed disk but that made no difference. I have tried to boot to the vm with the vmdk created by the snapshot but the vpshere client gives an error that the "the parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created".

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

Initially a snapshot was taken, the virtual disks were increased in size ...

with an active snapshot the size in the GUI should have been grayed out. If you did resize the virtual disk from the command line you most likely corrupted it.

Please explain - in detail - the steps you did and post (attach) a list of files in the VM's folder, showing names, extensions, sizes and time stamps (an ls -lisa from the command line would be great). In addition to this attach (archive/zip) the VM's .vmx file as well as the vmware*.log files.

André

[2600HZ]

The disk size increase was done through the vsphere interface not the command line. I didn't make the changes myself but as far as I know the disk was increased after the snapshot, the guest os partitions were resized then the 3rd disk was removed from the datastore. I've attached the results of ls -lisa and a zip with the logs and vmx file.

[a_p_]

To be honest, this doesn't look very good. Anyway, to see what can be done, please archive/zip all the .vmdk header files (the small text files) and attach them to your next post. These files contain the virtual disk sizes as well as the values for the snapshot chains.

André

[2600HZ]

I looked at all the snapshot descriptors and one of them was pointed to an incorrect parent CID. I fixed that and tried booting the vm with one of the snapshot vmdk files added to the inventory. So far it looks like I can access the data that I need but I am waiting for someone to verify that the data is really there.