Lost snaphots

[DenisVmware]

Hello everyone!

I terrible sorry if I posted this message at inappropriate place.

We have a big problem. We use VMware for a long time and have one main Virtual Machine. This virtual machine have many snaphots. Today we've decided to delete one snapshot and done it. When we were deleting it we got the message 'blahblahblah ... ... needs to repear disk .... blahlbahblah' (unfortunately, I don't remember the message exactly). After that, when we open Snaphot Manager, we could see only ONE CURRENT STATE! All snapshots dissapeared! But I could see the following files in a folder : Windows Server 2003 Small Business-Snapshot5.vmsn, Windows Server 2003 Small Business-Snapshot6.vmsn ...and others snapshots. It means that we didn't delete this snapshots. But we don't see them in Snapshot Manager! Could somebody say what should we do please? We greatly need this snapshots...

Thank you all very much.

Best regards,

Denis.

[oreeh]

What VMware product do you use?

[DenisVmware]

Sorry, I had to provide this info yesterday :

VMware Workstation

Version 6.0.0 build-45731

Thanks.

[oreeh]

FYI: this thread has been moved to the VMware Workstation forum.

Oliver

VMTN User Moderator

[oreeh]

Please provide the information requested here

[DenisVmware]

Hello everyone!

Details :

Exact version of WMware Workstation : 6.0.0 build-45731

Host OS : Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1, 32-bit version

Host Computer : AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+; 1.81 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM, Physical Address Extension

Hard disks:

Total Size on C: : 40.2 GB

Free Space on C: : 416 MB

Guest OS : Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for Small business Server, Service Pack 1

Guest Computer : AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+; 1.81 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, Physical Address Extension

Hard disks:

Total Size on C: : 15.9 GB

Free Space on C: : 2.23 GB

vmware.log's, screenshot of VMWare folder attached.

If you need some another information, let me know pease.

Thanks everyone.

[oreeh]

According to the log your VM is still using the snapshots - this is good.

The problem is that the VMSD file is empty (this file is used by the Snapshot Manager to display and manage the snapshot tree).

We can try to restore it (no guarantee!).

To do this do the following:

Download tools.zip, extract it and copy vmreport.exe to the VM folder.

Shut down the VM, close Workstation and execute vmreport.exe.

This will create a text file called "vmreport.txt" - post it.

After executing vmreport.exe you can start the VM again.

[DenisVmware]

Done.

[oreeh]

For (to me unknown) reasons the report didn't run properly

Copy ddtget.exe to the VM folder and execute the following commands (the VM has to be powered off and Workstation closed):

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000001.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000001.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000002.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000002.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000003.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000003.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000004.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000004.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000005.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000005.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000007.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000007.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000008.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000008.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000009.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000009.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000010.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000010.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business-000011.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS-000011.txt

ddtget.exe -vmdk="Windows Server 2003 Small Business.vmdk" -desc=W2K3SBS.txt

Then post the newly created txt files.

[DenisVmware]

Done.

[oreeh]

I was able to restore the CID chain but unfortunately your vmsn files don't match your vmdk files.

You have 11 VMDK files, but only 7 VMSN and VMEM files.

According to the CID chain your snapshot tree looked like the following

base.vmdk - 000001.vmdk - 000002.vmdk - 000005.vmdk - 000004.vmdk - 000007.vmdk - 000010.vmdk

| 000009.vmdk

000003.vmdk - 000011.vmdk - 000008.vmdk

Sorry, but I can't help you.

Your best bet is to leave the VM as is.

[DenisVmware]

Well, thank you very much for your help In any case. Is it absolutely impossible to restore our snapshots? Maybe you can advice somebody who could help me?

[oreeh]

Well, thank you very much for your help In any case. Is it absolutely impossible to restore our snapshots?

You can still commit / delete snapshots using the approach in this document .

Make a backup before doing this !!!

[DenisVmware]

Thank you, I'll try to do that.

Best regards,

Denis

[sdietz]

What is the actual command to run the vmreport.exe. I am running ESXi 4.0 and have the .exe file in the directory but nothing happens when I run the vmreport.exe.

Thanks,

[steveclements]

Oreeh, I have the exact same problem but looking at the vmdk and vmsn files they match. Can you provide the next steps to try ands recreate the Snapshot Tree?