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w3rd
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Svmotion ERROR???

hey guys i have an issue when i attempt to storage vmotion a live machine... i have consolidated the disks in order to preserve errors related to max cap of vmdks migrating at one time to find this isnt an issue.... this particular error persists regardless of total vmdks?

"a general system error occurred: Storage Vmotion: Online Consolidate fail: Unable to open snapshot file. Must manually consolidate child disks"

im wandering what is causing the snapshot file to lockup.. is this a permissions issue? is there any chance that you would be able to configure this to allow for a work around?

Currently the vms files are split on 2 datastores...

is there a way to force the migration to successfully get the vms files from the source migrated to the destination without restarting or halting the server???

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RParker
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-rw------- 1 root root 16820736 Mar 9 20:24 DMotion-scsi0:00_D-delta.vmdk

There is your problem. You can't svmotion this VM until the original move is completed. You can't complete it until you power it off, and complete the migration. I understand you want to do it while it's up, svmotion is a great tool, but unfortunately it's incomplete, and it must be completed with the VM offline.

That's why you have errors, snapshots are preventing this VM from being migrated. So you need to get some down time for that VM.

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RParker
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"a general system error occurred: Storage Vmotion: Online Consolidate fail: Unable to open snapshot file. Must manually consolidate child disks"

I think the issue is you can't svmotion disks with snapshots. So you either need to commit the changes, or shut off the VM and migrate the VM manuall (like the error message suggests)

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w3rd
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I understand. the issue is.. i dont use snapshots at all.. due to reliablity.. we only clone to template and or clone the vms for backup atm.. but does this use snapshot technology at all?

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w3rd
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sorry i dont understand what you mean by commit the changes?????? does this indicate if there is any snapshot etc to remove this before proceeding in order for the migration to be sucessful??

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RParker
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I understand. the issue is.. i dont use snapshots at all.. due to reliablity.. we only clone to template and or clone the vms for backup atm.. but does this use snapshot technology at all?

Yes, it uses reverse snapshot (as I call it) where instead of snapshot the data, and write to an alternate file, it creates a snapshot of the original then clones itself totally to the new snapshot, and then once all the changes are on the new file, it reconfigures the configuration file behind the scenes after it's complete and basically commits the file, hence now it points to the new location, and thus data is cloned while the VM is running.

so in essence it does use a snapshot. But it would appear you have some other errors.

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RParker
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sorry i dont understand what you mean by commit the changes??????

Yes, I assumed from the error it meant you were trying to migrate a VM that had snapshots. If you right click the VM, and click snapshot, there is nothing in that box right?

If you edit the changes for the VM, and click on the hard drive, what does the configuration look like? Does it say something like data-vmotion.vmdk or is the name of the VM?

If you power off the VM, and right click the VM is there an option to 'complete the migration'?

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w3rd
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sorry i dont understand what you mean by commit the changes??????Yes, I assumed from the error it meant you were trying to migrate a VM that had snapshots. If you right click the VM, and click snapshot, there is nothing in that box right?

If you edit the changes for the VM, and click on the hard drive, what does the configuration look like? Does it say something like data-vmotion.vmdk or is the name of the VM?

If you power off the VM, and right click the VM is there an option to 'complete the migration'?

if i attempt to configure the vm via snapshot i have options to take a snapshot, and manage snapshots.. revert is blanked out...

if edit the machine i see that there are 2 locations for the disks...

i cant shut down the machine atm due to the fact that is being worked on.. i need to be able to mirgrate without affecting the vms state....

if i view the vms file structure on the source and or destinations i see this..

source

ls -al

total 21000384

drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 840 Mar 9 19:22 .

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 2100 Mar 9 19:16 ..

-rw------- 1 root root 21484431360 Mar 9 19:22 D-flat.vmdk

-rw------- 1 root root 417 Mar 9 19:26 D.vmdk

-rw------- 1 root root 16820736 Mar 9 20:24 DMotion-scsi0:00_D-delta.vmdk

-rw------- 1 root root 368 Mar 9 19:26 DMotion-scsi0:00_D.vmdk

destination

-


ls -al

total 23082496

drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1680 Mar 9 19:26 .

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1260 Mar 9 19:22 ..

-rw------- 1 root root 2147483648 Mar 9 19:22 D-c4345538.vswp

-rw------- 1 root root 21484431360 Mar 9 19:26 D-flat.vmdk

-rw------- 1 root root 8684 Mar 9 19:22 D.nvram

-rw------- 1 root root 417 Mar 9 19:26 D.vmdk

-rw------- 1 root root 500 Mar 9 19:22 D.vmsd

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2349 Mar 9 20:20 D.vmx

-rw------- 1 root root 279 Mar 9 20:20 D.vmxf

-rw-rr 1 root root 33615 Mar 9 19:22 vmware-1.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 1430219 Mar 9 19:22 vmware-2.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 60182 Mar 9 20:20 vmware.log

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RParker
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-rw------- 1 root root 16820736 Mar 9 20:24 DMotion-scsi0:00_D-delta.vmdk

There is your problem. You can't svmotion this VM until the original move is completed. You can't complete it until you power it off, and complete the migration. I understand you want to do it while it's up, svmotion is a great tool, but unfortunately it's incomplete, and it must be completed with the VM offline.

That's why you have errors, snapshots are preventing this VM from being migrated. So you need to get some down time for that VM.

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w3rd
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hey ty for the reply.. i give it ago turn it off and see what happens.. will post the results later this evening when i know know work is taking place and let you know the outcome.

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