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ColinCampbellCC
Contributor
Contributor

Problem resuming VM Workstation 8 Windows 7 x64 eSATA

I've searched for a solution to this and haven't found anything useful. Hoping it is a known issue someone can identify!

I'm repeatedly but intermittently getting an error resuming a VM: "An error caused the resume operation to fail. Preserve the suspended state and correct the error, or discard the suspended state." In the past I've not been too worried and simply discarded the suspended state, but now it has happened once too often - I want to continue from where I left off in this particular VM.

Environment:

Windows 7 Enterprise, 64-bit 6.1.7601, SP1

VMware Workstation 8.0.1 b528992

HP ProBook 6560b laptop w/ 8GB RAM

Internal + External display

VM on eSATA drive

Clone of VM base on internal drive

Being a laptop it moves networks regularly and may or may not have the eSATA or any other USB drive connected at any given time.

Attached is the vm-support file.

Thanks in advance for any help, greatly appreciate it!

Cheers,
Colin

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Hi and welcome

does this file exist ?
E:\Users\Public\Documents\Virtual Machines\NELLAPCC05\NELLAPCC05-b61ceb49.vmss


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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ColinCampbellCC
Contributor
Contributor

I think it did, as did the .vmem file, but cannot be sure as I have had to discard the suspended state to get working again.

To test it, I have suspended another similar guest named NELLAPCC08 and it has written a similar file. The folder looks to have a similar number of similarly-named files as NELLAPCC05 did while I was trying to resume it. NELLAPCC08 then resmued ok, but the issue only occurs when the hardware environment changes while the guest is suspended.

Where did you get that file name from - presumably one of the log files?

Thanks,

Colin

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ColinCampbellCC
Contributor
Contributor

I've just tried this again, trying to resume while the eSATA drive is not connected. Of course it fails, but I can then connect the eSATA drive and resume the VM sucessfully. So it is not a procedural problem, definitely a glitch of some kind.

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ColinCampbellCC
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Contributor

Right, just had it happen again, however there is more to the story.

Since the eSATA drive seems to need the OS to be fairly quiet at the time it is connected, lest it be detected as USB rather than eSATA, I connected it late and my smartphone had already grabbed the usual drive letter for the eSATA. So, VMware workstation couldn't find the E: drive .vmx file when I tried to resume the guest. Next, I closed VMware workstation, removed/rearranged the drives so that the eSATA was on its usual designation E:. Started VMware workstation again, tried to resume the guest, got the original error again: "[?] An error caused the resume operation to fail. Preserve the suspended state and correct the error, or discard the suspended state. [Preserve] [Discard]"

All the files are present and accessible in the correct location, but VMware workstation doesn't want to work. I have another guest in a sibling folder which after testing earlier, I've left suspended. It has resumed correctly. Both have the same set of files in their folders.

The problem appears to be that VMware workstation corrupts the suspended state if it attempts a resume and the files aren't where it expects them to be. Putting them back won't fix the corruption; by the time it offers to "Preserve" the state, it's poked.

This is all I can find amiss in the vmware.log file:

2012-01-31T09:54:39.424+13:00| vmx| I120: Msg_Question:
2012-01-31T09:54:39.424+13:00| vmx| I120: [msg.checkpoint.resume.error] An error caused the resume operation to fail. Preserve the suspended state and correct the error, or discard the suspended state.
2012-01-31T09:54:39.424+13:00| vmx| I120: ----------------------------------------
2012-01-31T09:56:59.585+13:00| vmx| I120: MsgQuestion: msg.checkpoint.resume.error reply=0
2012-01-31T09:56:59.585+13:00| vmx| I120: Module Checkpoint power on failed.
2012-01-31T09:56:59.585+13:00| vmx| I120: VMX_PowerOn: ModuleTable_PowerOn = 0
2012-01-31T09:56:59.586+13:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [6268 mainDispatch.c:4067]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=1, newAppState=1875, success=1 additionalError=0
2012-01-31T09:56:59.586+13:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [6268 mainDispatch.c:4067]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=0, newAppState=1870, success=1 additionalError=0
2012-01-31T09:56:59.586+13:00| vmx| I120: Transitioned vmx/execState/val to suspended
2012-01-31T09:56:59.588+13:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [6268 mainDispatch.c:4067]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=0, newAppState=1870, success=0 additionalError=0
2012-01-31T09:56:59.588+13:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [6268 mainDispatch.c:4106]: Error VIX_E_FAIL in VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished(): Unknown error
2012-01-31T09:56:59.588+13:00| vmx| I120: VMX idle exit
2012-01-31T09:56:59.588+13:00| vmx| I120: VMIOP: Exit
2012-01-31T09:56:59.589+13:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [6268 mainDispatch.c:869]: VMAutomation_LateShutdown()
2012-01-31T09:56:59.589+13:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [6268 mainDispatch.c:819]: VMAutomationCloseListenerSocket. Closing listener socket.
2012-01-31T09:56:59.589+13:00| vmx| I120: Flushing VMX VMDB connections
2012-01-31T09:56:59.591+13:00| vmx| I120: VmdbDbRemoveCnx: Removing Cnx from Db for '/db/connection/#1/'
2012-01-31T09:56:59.591+13:00| vmx| I120: VmdbCnxDisconnect: Disconnect: closed pipe for pub cnx '/db/connection/#1/' (0)
2012-01-31T09:56:59.597+13:00| vmx| I120: VMX exit (0).
2012-01-31T09:56:59.597+13:00| vmx| I120: FileTrack_Exit: done

Where can I find what the error actually is so I can then fix it? "Unknown error" is not very helpful.

Thanks,

Colin

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