Hidden/stuck snapshots

[shane_presley]

We have some VMs that are in snapshot mode (they are writing to  00000x vmdk files).  However ViCenter doesn't show any snapshots via SnapShot Manager.

I've done some searching and found lots of people having similar problems.  It appears to happen when various backup products put the VM in snapshot mode, but it fails to clean up at the end.

In particular I decided to follow this article:  http://4sysops.com/archives/vmware-backups-troubleshoot-the-consolidate-helper-0-backup-error/

However none of those tricks work.  In particular:

-I tried shutting the VM down, creating a new snapshot.  Then SnapShot Manager did indeed show two snapshots, my new one, and the old/stuck one called "Consolidate Helper- 0".  But when I tried delete all, I got the error "Unable to access file <unspecified filename> since it is locked".

-I tried migrating the VM (host and datastore).  No luck

The only option I haven't tried yet is the vmware converter.  Holding that out as a last resort.  Just wanted to see if anyone had any new alternatives to try?

Thanks,

Shane

[nielse]

Have you tried the following?

- Create a new snapshot

- Services.sh restart (or restart the management agents) (don't worry about the disconnect)

- Delete all snapshots

[a_p_]

What you can see in the Snapshot Manager are the contents of the VM's .vmsd file. Most backup applications don't maintain this file, so the snapshots created by these applications won't show up.

Regarding "Unable to access file <unspecified filename> since it is locked", there might be a stuck backup process running on the ESXi host which causes the issue. Assuming you don't use automatic startup/shutdown of VM's you could try to restart the management services on the host to see whether the lock is released.

André

[MonsterVM2011]

Hi Shane

May be worth doing a lower level search for that lock as migrating VMs between hosts does not always clear it.

The following http://kb.vmware.com/kb/10051 has helped in the past for me when i have come up against some nasty locked files. I have also seen in the past snapshots that are extremely big take ages 2h + to commit and the task times out snapshot manager shows nothing but its still chugging in the background etc.. How big is the snapshot file?