Unable to startup multiple VMs. Maybe I corrupted the Template

[GREnvoy]

We have been having disk space issues, and I was looking around the Datastore to see if there was garbage left over. I'm really quite new to VM, but even though I'm new I'm tasked with helping to maintain. So I'm learning a lesson the hard way.

I found a number of older VMs in folderes that did not seem to relate to existing templates. As an example we have a Server 2008 Template names 000729-Server2008, it resides in lm401\729. But it appers to be a clone of 729 in lm401\16. I'm going to guess that 16 was the original version and modifications or clones have been made to it and we now sit at 729.

So I moved 16 to another datastore, but it failed because there is a lock on the main .vmdk file. So I moved everything back. Now when we try to start up VMs drived from this template we get "File <unspecified filename> was not found" I went back and tried to deploy and power on the template but I get

Unable to deploy virtual machines in resource pool "resgroup-131".

• Failed to power one or more virtual machines.

• Error powering on virtual machine "2008 X86".

• Power On operation on virtual machine could not be
  performed because one of the files is locked. Consolidation of the
  virtual machine may resolve this issue.

• The operation could not be performed because a file is locked.

So I undeployed and tried to Consolidate at which time I get

Host "172.31.7.111" has reported an error. A disk error occurred: The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened.Host "172.31.7.111" has reported an error. A disk error occurred: The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened.

Can anyone help me out?

[kac2]

it seems that you tried to move (not storage vMotion) and virtual machine that was currently running and you hit a lock.

make sure the VM is completely powered off and remove from inventory and re-add it back to the inventory. hopefully re-registering the VM will do something.

[GREnvoy]

I tried to remove the VM from the inventory and re-add it but that didn't help.

--Message was edited by: Moderator - Removed email auto reply information

[jamesbowling]

Attempt moving everything back to where it was before you moved anything and then re-adding to inventory?

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[GREnvoy]

I have tried removing the current template as well as the vms, but nothing.

Can anyone explain the correlation betweek the different VM folders that seem tobe the same VM?

[jamesbowling]

Here is a quick explanation of the scenario you are seeing:

1. The original template (VM01) was created which created a folder called VM01 on your datastore. Someone possibly deployed another VM called VM01 from this template which creates a new folder called VM01_1.

Another scenario:

2. Someone created a VM called VM01 and then added another VMDK to it on a different datastore which created another folder called VM01. So you now have a VM01 on Datastore1 and a VM01 on Datastore2. Both of which house VMDKs that are used by VM01.

Another scenario:

3. Someone created a VM called VM01, remove it from inventory but not from disk and created a new VM called VM01 and placed it on the same datastore as the old one. This created a new folder called VM01_1.

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[GREnvoy]

There seems to be some sort of ties to the old ones though,

Here is what I find in the log

Oct 25 10:59:56.087: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR: DescriptorDetermineType: failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/25/TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk': Could not find the file (63)

Oct 25 10:59:56.089: vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : "/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/25/TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).

Oct 25 10:59:56.090: vmx| DISKLIB-CHAIN :"/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/440/000440-TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk": Failed to open parent "/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/25/TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk": The system cannot find the file specified.

Oct 25 10:59:56.091: vmx| DISKLIB-CHAIN : "/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/25/TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk" : failed to open (The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened).

Oct 25 10:59:56.093: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/440/000440-TEMP-SVR2008_64-delta.vmdk" : closed.

Oct 25 10:59:56.094: vmx| DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/440/000440-TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk' with flags 0xa (The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened).

Oct 25 10:59:56.100: vmx| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/440/000440-TEMP-SVR2008_64-delta.vmdk" : open successful (8) size = 6459312128, hd = 115169. Type 8

[jamesbowling]

So is there anyway you can put everything back in the same locations they were in before? The logs are showing you where it is looking for them. Also, it looks like you have some broken redo logs (delta files). It is trying to find the parent CID for the VMDK these reference but it can't. If there is anyway you can put everything back to their original locations then I think we would have a better chance of getting this straightened out.

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[GREnvoy]

Shortly after this was moved, everything was moved right back. So everything should be where it orginally was.

[jamesbowling]

So your template is still intact? Did you convert it back to a VM and try booting it up?

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[GREnvoy]

No the templates will not startup either. It's starting to look like the .vmdk is missing, but everything that was moved was copied back.

[jamesbowling]

If you browse to the datastore in the cli, does the following exist:

/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/25/TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk

If you are connected to the cli you can just cd /vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/25/ and then do an ls -lhtr

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[GREnvoy]

no, I just have a -flat.vmdk.

B

[jamesbowling]

We need to see if you either have not moved everything back and search for the VMDK or you need to restore from a backup if you have one.

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[GREnvoy]

Is there any way to rebuild the .vmdk file? My understanding is that the -flat.vmdk is the actual disk with data, but the .vmdk is somewhat of a configuration file.

[f10]

If the .vmdk file is missing however the corresponding flat.vmdk is available, the missing vmdk file can be re-created by following http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002511

Or you may attach a new Virtual Disk of the same SIZE to this or any other virtual machine (ensure that the hardware version is the same) and then login to the ESX host using putty and copy the vmdk file and to the problem VM directory and change the name of the file and also change the reference to the flat.vmdk file.

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f-10

VCP3, VCP4, HPCP, HP UX CSA

[jamesbowling]

You can attempt the recreation of the VMDK with http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002511 or pull from backup.

Or I can just basically say what f10 said! Ha!

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Message was edited by: jamesbowling

[GREnvoy]

After following the instructions and rebuilding the file, I get a new error. I will google this, but I thought I'd ask here also.

Power On virtual machine

000647-TopekaDB3

Cannot open the disk

'/vmfs/volumes/4b97c852-82c03a7e-4506-18a90568791c/lm401/647/-

000647-TEMP-SVR2008_64.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it

depends on. Reason: The parent virtual disk has been modified since

the child was created.

[jamesbowling · Accepted solution]

This KB article may help out: http://www.vmware.com/kb/1007969

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[GREnvoy]

When I follow the link or look for article 1007969 I get nothing that seems related.