snapshoot fail from a vmdk import

[FelixCent]

Hi everyone.

I am working with Esxi 5.5,  when we create a virtual machine from any iso of any O.S, I mean install the OS, we do not have any problem to create a snapshot, but if we  import the vmdk from outside, in our case was from Virtual Box, the OS run perfectly but we cannot create a snapshot, the error "the task was canceled by a user". I tryed with two vmdk (both come from Virtual box) one was an Ubuntu and the other one Oracle Linux.

Any clue?

Thanks to community

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

Without knowing the details, I'd guess that the VM's virtual disks do not have a supported file format, and still use e.g. the 2GB Sparse format. Please download the latest vmware.log file from the VM's folder on the datastore and attach it to a reply post.

André

[NealeC]

Hi Felix In addition to APs questions I'd like to know more details about how you say you "import" from Virtualbox?

Are you exporting to OVF/OVA to "import" into vsphere?

Are you using vmconvertor?

Were the virtualbox VMs built with vmdk format disks to start with?

More information around the start point, end point and the process to move between them will help in discerning why snapshots are throwing an error.

e.g. the disk descriptor file isn't being created properly during import, so esxi may be able to read the disk to run the VM but not have sufficient information to create a snapshot

[FelixCent]

Hi mates.

NeleC : About the import, what I did, I just load de vmdk, I use the tool Browse Datastore, Edit setting of the virtual machine and add the hardrive (vmdk) that I  had previously loaded. I also tried to locate this vdmk in the same folder that the virtual Machine, but same issues.

A.p (André😞 The log after try snapshot with the option

2014-10-08T12:37:32.081Z| vmx| I120: SnapshotVMX_TakeSnapshot start: 'testsnap', deviceState=1, lazy=1, logging=0, quiesced=0, forceNative=0, tryNative=0, sibling=0 saveAllocMaps=0 cb=1F003540, cbData=323484D0

2014-10-08T12:37:32.181Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotWork: Transition to mode 0.

2014-10-08T12:37:32.215Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-s001.vmdk" : open successful (65557) size = 1791688704, hd = 0. Type 8

2014-10-08T12:37:32.215Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-s001.vmdk" : closed.

2014-10-08T12:37:32.295Z| vcpu-0| I120: Progress -1% (msg.checkpoint.saveStatusWithName)

2014-10-08T12:37:32.295Z| vcpu-0| I120: Checkpointed in VMware ESX, 5.5.0, build-1331820, Linux Host

2014-10-08T12:37:32.449Z| vcpu-0| I120: Progress 0% (none)

2014-10-08T12:37:32.538Z| vcpu-0| I120: Progress 101% (none)

2014-10-08T12:37:32.539Z| vcpu-0| I120: Closing all the disks of the VM.

2014-10-08T12:37:32.539Z| vcpu-0| I120: Closing disk ide0:0

2014-10-08T12:37:32.609Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-s001.vmdk" : closed.

2014-10-08T12:37:32.653Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-s001.vmdk" : open successful (29) size = 1774977024, hd = 0. Type 8

2014-10-08T12:37:32.853Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-LIB   : CREATE CHILD: "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001.vmdk" -- twoGbMaxExtentSparse grainSize=128 policy=''

2014-10-08T12:37:32.859Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-LIB   : CREATE-CHILD: Creating disk backed by 'default'

2014-10-08T12:37:33.994Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001.vmdk" : creation successful.

2014-10-08T12:37:34.495Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-s001.vmdk" : closed.

2014-10-08T12:37:34.631Z| vcpu-0| I120: Checkpoint_Unstun: vm stopped for 2505800 us

2014-10-08T12:37:34.698Z| Worker#0| I120: MainMem: Begin lazy IO (262144 pages, 0 done, 1 threads, bio = 0).

2014-10-08T12:37:34.701Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISK: OPEN ide0:0 '/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001.vmdk' persistent R[]

2014-10-08T12:37:34.760Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001-s001.vmdk" : open successful (10) size = 327680, hd = 338351. Type 8

2014-10-08T12:37:34.760Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "vmubuntu-000001-s001.vmdk" (0xa)

2014-10-08T12:37:34.761Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001-s002.vmdk" : open successful (10) size = 327680, hd = 350640. Type 8

2014-10-08T12:37:34.761Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [1]: "vmubuntu-000001-s002.vmdk" (0xa)

2014-10-08T12:37:34.781Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001-s003.vmdk" : open successful (10) size = 327680, hd = 375217. Type 8

2014-10-08T12:37:34.781Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [2]: "vmubuntu-000001-s003.vmdk" (0xa)

………........................................

2014-10-08T12:37:34.979Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-LIB   : Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001.vmdk' with flags 0xa The system cannot find the file specified (25).

2014-10-08T12:37:34.991Z| vcpu-0| I120: VMXNET3 user: Ethernet0 Driver Info: version = 16908288 gosBits = 2 gosType = 1, gosVer = 0, gosMisc = 0

2014-10-08T12:37:35.203Z| vcpu-0| I120: Msg_Post: Error

2014-10-08T12:37:35.203Z| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.disk.fileNotFound] VMware ESX cannot find the virtual disk "/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001.vmdk". Verify the path is valid and try again.

2014-10-08T12:37:35.203Z| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.disklib.FILENOTFOUND] The system cannot find the file specified

2014-10-08T12:37:35.203Z| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.disk.noBackEnd] Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/vmubuntu-000001.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

2014-10-08T12:37:35.203Z| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.checkpoint.continuesync.error] An operation required the virtual machine to quiesce and the virtual machine was unable to continue running.

2014-10-08T12:37:35.203Z| vcpu-0| I120: ----------------------------------------

2014-10-08T12:37:35.217Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotCB: Failed to quiesce for snapshotting. (mode=2, error=0)

2014-10-08T12:37:35.217Z| vcpu-0| I120: Progress -1% (msg.checkpoint.saveStatusWithName)

2014-10-08T12:37:35.237Z| Worker#0| I120: MainMem: End lazy IO (640 done, sync = 1, error = 3).

2014-10-08T12:37:35.237Z| vcpu-0| I120: MainMem: Completed pending lazy checkpoint save (-4).

2014-10-08T12:37:35.259Z| vcpu-0| I120: Progress 101% (none)

2014-10-08T12:37:35.259Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotWork: Transition to mode 1.

2014-10-08T12:37:35.259Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot 'testsnap': 1

2014-10-08T12:37:35.259Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 1 failed: Cancelled (45).

2014-10-08T12:37:35.259Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Cleaning up incomplete snapshot 1.

2014-10-08T12:37:35.303Z| vcpu-0| I120: SNAPSHOT: SnapshotDelete '/vmfs/volumes/542d6eb0-96942b0d-b076-60eb69749942/Machine/Machine.vmx' : 1

2014-10-08T12:37:35.624Z| vmx| I120: Stopping VCPU threads...

2014-10-08T12:37:35.624Z| vcpu-0| I120: VMMon_WaitForExit: vcpu-0: worldID=65864

2014-10-08T12:37:35.629Z| svga| I120: SVGA thread is exiting

2014-10-08T12:37:35.778Z| vmx| I120:

2014-10-08T12:37:35.778Z| vmx| I120+ OvhdMem: Final (Power Off) Overheads

Thanks

Kind regards

[a_p_]

That's what I though. The virtual disk format is "twoGbMaxExtentSparse" which is no longer supported on ESXi 5 (although it may work for a base virtual disk). What you need to do is to convert/clone the virtual disk to a format that's supported by ESXi (i.e. thin or thick provisioned).

You can try to do this from the ESXi host's command line running the following command (with the VM powered off):

vmkfstools -i <source>.vmdk <target>.vmdk -d thin

If the conversion succeeds edit the VM's settings, remove the "old" virtual disk and add the new, cloned one.

If it doesn't work, you may need to load the multiextent module for the conversion (see http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/09/2gbsparse-disk-format-no-longer-working.html)

André

[FelixCent]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have the same problem with a Vmdk that was created as a static disk.

I do not know if at the end is the same problem.

[a_p_]

Well, in this case attach (please don't paste) the VM's vmware.log which usually contains hints what's causing the issue.

André

[FelixCent]

OK Andre, I am going to load the static vmdk disk, this is which we really want to load, it is 50 Gb, so it will take some time. I was working with something less heavy to find a way to solve our problem, but a soon as the machine will be ready, I will try to make a snapshot and attached the log.

Thanks and sorry to paste the log. 

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

>>> ... I am going to load the static vmdk disk, this is which we really want to load, it is 50 Gb ...

You can also provide some information about the virtual disk.

Is it a single file or does it consist of multiple files? In case of multiple .vmdk files there should be one with the metadata, i.e. a small text file (please attach this to a reply post).

In case of a single .vmdk file it's an unsupported format for ESXi and needs to be converted. Assuming you have the file stored on a local PC, you can either use VMware Workstation's vmware-vdiskmanager command line tool to convert the virtual disk, or - if you have all the VM's files - it might be possible to use VMware Converter to "upload" the VM to the ESXi host.

André

[FelixCent]

yesss. This is the problem, You cannot load vmdk directly from virtualbox, it will run fine, but It won't work properly, I could run the vmdk but it was imposible to create a snapshoot.

The procedure  http://www.itsecurenet.com/virtualbox-ova-to-vsphere-ovf/

Thanks everyone for the support