Error: "Unable to open file "E:\NSP2010\NSP2010drive2.vmdk": One of the disks in this virtual machine is already in use by a virtual machine or by a snapshot."

[alexziskind]

Hello community.

I've been using my guest for a while; each time I needed to restart the host, I would shut down the guest (in this case Win2008R2).

The last time I suspended the guest instead of shutting it down. Now when I try to start it up I get this error.

I've seen people having this error on the forums, but the suggested solutions don't fix my problem.

I am not sure what I need to attach to help diagnose this problem, but will be happy to do so if someone requests it.

VMWare Workstation 8.0.2

Host: Win 7 64

Guest: Win 2008 R2

Many thanks.

[srnhpp]

If your virtual machine already has two disks with identical file names, rename one of the disks:

1. Make sure no snapshots of the virtual machine exist.

   Note: If your virtual machine already has a  snapshot, power off the virtual machine and delete the snapshot. You can  use the Snapshot Manager to delete snapshots. From the VI Client,  choose Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager.

2. Power off the virtual machine.

3. Remove one of the two disks from the virtual machine, but do not delete the disk.

4. Log in to the ESX Server system and use the following command to rename the disk:
   vmkfstools -E <old_name> <new_name>

   For example, to rename the disk foo.vmdk to bar.vmdk, enter vmkfstools -E foo.vmdk bar.vmdk.

Srnhpp  

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

I've seen people having this error on the forums, but the suggested solutions don't fix my problem.

What did you do so far?

Is the E: drive an external disk? Please make sure there are no .lck files and folders left over (with VMware Workstation closed).

To see what's going on, please attach the vmware.log file from the VM's folder to your next post and post a complete list of files in the VM's folder showing all details (name, extensing, size, time stamp).

André

[continuum]

Do you have lock directories in the directory where the VM is stored ?
If yes - delete them.
If not - post a directory listing and attach the vmware.log

[alexziskind]

Thanks for your response.

I will try to do everything I can before deleting the snapshot(s) because I definitely need them. I have no problem starting the machine with the first snapshot, but that's equivalent to creating a new machine.

I will try removing the second hard disk from the snapshot and see if that works.

[alexziskind]

I delete the lck directories each time before starting Workstation.

The logfiles have been attached to this post.

Here is the directory listing (it includes the lck file before I generated the listing when vm was open in workstation):

Volume in drive E is SSD
Volume Serial Number is AAF9-782B

Directory of E:\NSP2010

02/25/2012  01:21 PM    <DIR>          .
02/25/2012  01:21 PM    <DIR>          ..
08/16/2011  12:37 PM    <DIR>          caches
02/25/2012  01:21 PM                 0 dirlisting.txt
11/21/2011  02:19 PM       708,509,696 NSP2010drive2-000001.vmdk
02/15/2012  12:03 PM     5,122,097,152 NSP2010drive2-000002.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:34 PM         2,686,976 NSP2010drive2-000003.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:39 PM         2,686,976 NSP2010drive2-000004.vmdk
02/25/2012  01:18 PM         2,686,976 NSP2010drive2-000005.vmdk
02/24/2012  02:56 PM         2,686,976 NSP2010drive2-000006.vmdk
02/24/2012  03:02 PM         2,686,976 NSP2010drive2-000007.vmdk
02/24/2012  03:09 PM        85,786,624 NSP2010drive2.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM       903,413,760 SP2010-000001.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     6,246,236,160 SP2010-000002.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     4,185,587,712 SP2010-000003.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     2,401,501,184 SP2010-000004.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM       835,452,928 SP2010-000005.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     3,502,899,200 SP2010-000006.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     4,831,510,528 SP2010-000007.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     3,253,600,256 SP2010-000008.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     8,644,132,864 SP2010-000009.vmdk
11/21/2011  02:19 PM     9,024,241,664 SP2010-000010.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     1,125,187,584 SP2010-000011.vmdk
10/16/2011  08:13 PM     6,067,716,096 SP2010-000012.vmdk
02/15/2012  12:03 PM     7,696,220,160 SP2010-000013.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:34 PM    12,997,689,344 SP2010-000014.vmdk
11/05/2011  01:43 PM     8,306,622,464 SP2010-000015.vmdk
02/08/2012  10:37 PM     6,865,420,288 SP2010-000016.vmdk
02/15/2012  10:55 AM     6,866,468,864 SP2010-000017.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:34 PM         5,308,416 SP2010-000018.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:35 PM         5,308,416 SP2010-000019.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:39 PM         5,308,416 SP2010-000020.vmdk
02/24/2012  01:58 PM         5,308,416 SP2010-000021.vmdk
02/25/2012  01:18 PM         5,308,416 SP2010-000022.vmdk
02/24/2012  03:09 PM         5,308,416 SP2010-000024.vmdk
06/29/2011  02:43 PM            27,805 SP2010-Snapshot1.vmsn
07/27/2011  09:35 AM            29,367 SP2010-Snapshot11.vmsn
07/27/2011  10:12 AM            29,367 SP2010-Snapshot12.vmsn
08/14/2011  11:07 AM            29,404 SP2010-Snapshot19.vmsn
06/29/2011  03:24 PM            27,812 SP2010-Snapshot2.vmsn
11/05/2011  01:43 PM            29,507 SP2010-Snapshot20.vmsn
11/21/2011  02:19 PM            29,514 SP2010-Snapshot21.vmsn
06/29/2011  07:19 PM            27,888 SP2010-Snapshot3.vmsn
02/08/2012  10:36 PM            27,925 SP2010-Snapshot31.vmsn
02/15/2012  10:54 AM            27,925 SP2010-Snapshot33.vmsn
02/15/2012  12:03 PM            29,514 SP2010-Snapshot34.vmsn
06/29/2011  08:06 PM            27,892 SP2010-Snapshot4.vmsn
06/29/2011  09:58 PM            27,876 SP2010-Snapshot5.vmsn
06/29/2011  10:24 PM            27,876 SP2010-Snapshot6.vmsn
06/30/2011  10:37 AM            27,968 SP2010-Snapshot7.vmsn
06/30/2011  11:30 AM            27,968 SP2010-Snapshot8.vmsn
07/24/2011  02:26 PM            29,367 SP2010-Snapshot9.vmsn
02/25/2012  01:18 PM             8,684 SP2010.nvram
02/24/2012  01:58 PM     7,496,597,504 SP2010.vmdk
02/25/2012  01:18 PM             6,035 SP2010.vmsd
02/25/2012  01:18 PM             2,745 SP2010.vmx
02/25/2012  01:17 PM    <DIR>          SP2010.vmx.lck
02/25/2012  01:18 PM             1,636 SP2010.vmxf
02/25/2012  11:01 AM            62,512 vmware-0.log
02/25/2012  11:01 AM            59,712 vmware-1.log
02/25/2012  11:00 AM            59,712 vmware-2.log
02/25/2012  11:12 AM            60,537 vmware.log
02/25/2012  11:00 AM            20,831 vprintproxy.log
              59 File(s) 107,212,944,787 bytes
               4 Dir(s)  59,696,926,720 bytes free

[a_p_]

It looks like the base virtual disk has been accessed by a VM which broke the snapshot chain. In addition to this only a few of the snapshot files are referenced in the log files!? Did you manually modify the configuration at some time?

To fix the current issue

2012-02-25T11:00:23.265-05:00| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-LINK  : DiskLinkIsAttachPossible: Content ID mismatch (parentCID f3c05697 != 06b32e12) E:\NSP2010\SP2010-000001.vmdk E:\NSP2010\SP2010.vmdk.

you need to set the parentCID value in SP2010-000001.vmdk to the value of the CID in SP2010.vmdk. To do this extract the description from the SP2010-000001.vmdk file, edit it and insert it again. Follow the dsfi/dsfo examples at http://faq.sanbarrow.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=47&id=111&artlang=en

I stronly recommend you backup all of the files before doing anything!

André

[continuum]

very likely you attached  E:\NSP2010\SP2010.vmdk to a second VM or  misconfigured the VM.

To fix that please read http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk-howtos.html#editvmdk

then extract all embedded descriptor-files and attach the files to your next post - best all wrapped into one single archive

for your convenioence I wrote a batch that will do that for you - so all you have to do is download the dsfok-tools and put the files dsfo.exe ,dsfi.exe and the attached cmd into the same directory as the vmdks are.
Then execute the cmd

[continuum]

@ OP
Andres and my answer boil down to the same actions - so dont worry - just pick one and follow it

[alexziskind]

This is great! Thank you both.

I see that some of the child disks don't actually point to the parents, but not sure what to do.

Attaching the descriptors...

[a_p_]

@Ulli,

I'll step back on this thread - just keep watching it - to avoid confusion.

André

[alexziskind]

Continuum, from your site:

- do not trust the settings in the vmx-file
- do not trust the snapshot list in the vmsd file
- do not assume that 000002.vmdk is a child of 000001.vmdk and so on
- do not trust the person who reports the error

These are exactly the things I was doing! Hehe.

One more note:

I had a chain of snapshots one after another. At one point I added a second drive to store my windows pagefile.

Then I went back to a previous snapshot that didn't have a second drive and added the same second drive to it. I think the best course would have been to create a third drive for a previous snapshot, is that correct?

I can see where your distrust of end users come from.

[continuum]

download the 2 attached files
and copy them to the same dir
execute the cmd

[alexziskind]

Continuum, I've done that. Tried to restart the machine and received the following error:

[continuum]

thats unexpected - please delete all desc-files and run the extract-batch again.
This time also include the vmx-file you use now

[alexziskind]

Hmm. Ok I've rerun the scripts and generated new descriptors. Also I've attached the VMX in the archive.

[continuum]

use inject-descriptors.cmd as before with the attached file added

[alexziskind]

OK. I've done that. Now I am getting a similar error, but about a different vmdk:

[continuum]

ok - same procedure as with the first drive
run the attached command and zip all desc2-files

[alexziskind]

Here they are...