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rayblack
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VM appears to be in use

I am running VMWare workstation 8 on a Win 7 host. 8GB ram. Amd Phenom x4 965 BE cpu.

A Linux vm with 4gb ram allocated resulted in a complete lockup of the computer while watching a Youtube video (24min), machine totally unresponsive and required a reboot of the computer.

Ran a memory test upon reboot - no errors reported - a restart of Workstation and an attempt to restart my linux vm resulted in the following error:


This virtual machine appears to be in use.

If this machine is already in use press the CANCEL button to avoid damaging it.

If this virtual machine is not in use press the 'Take Ownership' button to take ownership of it.

Config file: L:/Linux Virtual Machines/Pinguy114/Pinguy114.vmx

Pressing the 'Take Ownership' button fails with the message:

The virtual machine is in use by an application on your host computer.

Config file: L/xxxx/xxx/xxx.vmx

The problem is 'How on earth does one recover a machine in this state'. I would greatly appreciate any help that can be given so that I can recover some rather important data from this virtual machine.

As this is the second catastrophic failure that I have had recently it seems to me that the virtual machine concept is not intended for a 'production' environment, merely a concept where systems and/or processes can be tested for validity but the virtual machine cannot be used to process actual data, which essentially destroys the usefullness of virtual machines.

Ray

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continuum
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Hi
these are no absurd conditions - you get this message when:
- the VM is opened in more then one Workstation or VMplayer instance -
- the last usage has left .lck directories or files in the VMs folder - just delete them


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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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rayblack
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Can't figure out how to edit my post so I'll add this addendum:

After several shutdowns of Workstation 8 and the vm showing 'in use' and unable to action I finally restarted Workstation and the vm showed 'Powered Off' hmmm, the vm then booted correctly so the problem is resolved (sort of) but the question remains - how do these absurd conditions get resolved when there is no possibility of getting into even a 'safe mode' to fix the problems.

Ray

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continuum
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Hi
these are no absurd conditions - you get this message when:
- the VM is opened in more then one Workstation or VMplayer instance -
- the last usage has left .lck directories or files in the VMs folder - just delete them


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

keiooz
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Right. If you are like 2 computers currently open for VM you are using, that is definitely the message you will get.

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rayblack
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In my particular case the vm was only opened once, I have a strange habit of only having one vm open at any time and only ever on the one host machine. If I want to open a new vm I close the one I'm working on and then open the next one. My problem was caused by the VM freezing the computer completely and having to resort to a hard reboot to get the host back up and running.

Perhaps you could point me to the Workstation manual pages where this problem is identified and the correction procedures detailed, that would certainly be a great help in resolving these imho absurd conditions.

Many thanks for the correction process and I'll note it down for future reference. But I must confess that I am now very wary of using vm's for anything important.

Ray

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continuum
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if you post the latest vmware.log from the directory of your VM I maybe able to suggest something useful - this is not the "usual" behaviour 😉


________________________________________________
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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rayblack
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Ulli,

There appear to be 4 log files, I presume the one you are referring to is the one labelled 'vmware' only? I have attached this file as requested. Thanks for the help.

Ray

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continuum
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I see lots of lines like

2012-03-15T12:41:45.494+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.312 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.510+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.328 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.549+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.265 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.585+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.300 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.635+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.204 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.679+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.073 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.717+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.073 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.767+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.074 seconds (ok)
2012-03-15T12:41:45.816+13:00| vmx| I120: scsi0:0: Command WRITE(10) took 1.856 seconds (ok)

did you ever use the shrink function for this VM ?
If not try it soon - it should improve performance of this VM


________________________________________________
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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rayblack
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Ulli,

I presume that this is the same function as 'Compact a Virtual Disk'

Ray

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mfelker
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According to VMware edocumentation from (about the latest on this particular subject I could find - in a previous thread on compacting vs  shrinking  (with VMware Tools) the two process are completelty identical - they both save disk   space on the host.  However I was corrected despite  the documentation the two process ar enot quite the same.  Either way Ulli is correct - I've seen disk performanc improved on many operating ssystem guests.  After installling VMware Tools I first timfe sync with the host and second shrink the disk.  Deframentation improves performance.  The most recent  recommendation can be followed.  Defragment with the operating  itself using  native OS tools (or possibly a third party defrag program like Perfectdisk) and then when the machine is shutdown defragement the hard disk externally using the advanced option of the HD preference menu which you'v ealready used in terms of compacting.

As far  the     the system hankgs see if you can boot the machine to safe mode.  Then goto the VMware folderI r that holds the VM and delete all .lck files as is recommended.

I'd also run chkdsk before rebooting into normal mode (the host OS that is).  The lockups and reboots may have been caused by the cold reboots.  you might see several .lck files (and also folders)).

If all this fails you may consider reinst allinig VMware progaram.  Your VM and and  data will not be touched.

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