"An error occurred while consolidating disks: msg.snapshot.error-NOTFOUND" during snapshot consolidation

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the resolution for consolidation issues pertaining to the above error.

Symptoms:

• Unable to consolidate snapshots.
• Snapshot consolidation fails, you see error similar to:
  
  An error occurred while consolidating disks: msg.snapshot.error-NOTFOUND

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 

Cause

This issue occurs when one or more delta files are missing.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Log in to the vCenter web-client and highlight the virtual machine facing issues.
2. Go to edit settings and highlight the drive.
3. Check on which delta file the drive is mapped.
4. Log in using root credentials to the ESXi host using SSH.
5. Navigate to the working directory of the virtual machine having issues.
   
   For example:
   
   # cd /vmfs/volumes/Datastore_name/Virtual_Machine_name/
   
6. Inspect each delta file and see if there is any delta file missing.
7. Delta files might not be in the order so please check for disk consistency.
   
   For example:
   
   # vmkfstools -e vmdk
   
   
8. Once the consistency is checked re-map the drive to the closest one which has all the delta files.
9. Please inform the customer, that data might be lost for delta file which is missing.
10. Once it is mapped then perform consolidation.
    
    

Note:It might also be possible that the directory where the VM resides (/vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmname/) contains old delta-vmdk that are not longer associated with this VM. These can be safely moved into a temporary folder.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
Delta file that is missing might have data which will be lost.