VMX locked after restart ESXI 5.1 host

[jackyyiu_nmg]

Hi everyone,

We have some old VM which are using ESXi 5.1, and we have restarted the host and now all VM is showing: Unknown (invalid)

I've tried the solutions in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1031605 but no luck.

When I tried to access vmware.log and all are showing "device or resource busy"

I've tried to run 
vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/{our datastore}/{vm name}/{vm name}.vmx
and shows

Lock [type 10c00001 offset 233984000 v 570, hb offset 3829760
gen 55, mode 1, owner 5fa042ec-47aaf6dc-2a6e-b083fecb7750 mtime 69681156
num 0 gblnum 0 gblgen 0 gblbrk 0]
Addr <4, 549, 34>, gen 555, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 600
len 85899345920, nb 78876 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 78876, zla 3, bs 1048576

I've already restart the host and I'm pretty sure there has no other host connecting to the VMs

DataStores File System: VMFS 5.58 in EQLOGIC iSCSI Disk 

Any possible cause or how can I release the lock of those VMs? or how can I start those VMs?

Thanks a lot

[NathanosBlightc]

Hi,

It's an very old version of ESXi and is not supported anymore. BTW, you mentioned using vmkfstools against a vmx file! why?! It's a shell command for managing just VMFS datastore and VMDK files

Spoiler

vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/{our datastore}/{vm name}/{vm name}.vmx

I suggest a simple solution to check the healthy of your VMs. \lease create another VM and add existing virtual disks (VMDKs) from one of your unknown VMs and then power-on this new VM and check the result.

[Lalegre]

Hey @jackyyiu_nmg,

Something really quick to check is if the .vmx file in the datastore has all valid data. If it has all the data of the connected devices then I recommend you to just Remove the invalid VM from Inventory and the register the .vmx file.

That will not impact anything and you will have your VM up and running in seconds.

[jackyyiu_nmg]

Hi Laegre,

since the vmx file is locked, I can't perform any read or copy action, I couldn't check if the datastore has all valid data.

[jackyyiu_nmg]

Hi NathanosBlightc,

Since the VMDK is also locked, seems I couldn't add them into another VM as drive.

[NathanosBlightc]

Did you power-off the old VM and remove the existing VMDK before adding to the new VM?!

What type of error has been generated when you try this ... Can you check the vmware.log file in the VM's related directory?

[Lalegre]

So I forgot you have a lock. Which host in your infrastracture have the next MAC: b083fecb7750?

[continuum]

vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/{our datastore}/{vm name}/{vm name}.vmx
and shows

Lock [type 10c00001 offset 233984000 v 570, hb offset 3829760
gen 55, mode 1, owner 5fa042ec-47aaf6dc-2a6e-b083fecb7750 mtime 69681156
num 0 gblnum 0 gblgen 0 gblbrk 0]
Addr <4, 549, 34>, gen 555, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 600
len 85899345920, nb 78876 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 78876, zla 3, bs 1048576

I dont believe that !!!
Size of the locked file is way too large to be a vmx-file.

Please check !

Ulli