Attempting to create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows virtual machine fails with the error: 'VmBackupOnThaw' operation failed
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Attempting to create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows virtual machine fails with the error: 'VmBackupOnThaw' operation failed

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Article ID: 308943

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
  • Cannot create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows virtual machine
  • Attempting to create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows virtual machine fails
  • The vSphere Client reports errors similar to:

    The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing. The error code was: 5 The error message was: 'VmBackupOnThaw' operation failed.
    The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing. The error code was: 2 The error message was: Custom quiesce script failed.
     
  • In the /var/log/hostd.log file, you see entries similar to:

    [645FDB90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.2)
    [6381CB90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4b04012e-1178f142-dbd4-0025b31edbef/examplevm/examplevm.vmx'] Disconnect check in progress.
    [645FDB90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.1)
    [645FDB90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.2)
    [645FDB90 info 'ha-eventmgr'] Event 6153 : Warning message on examplevm on sample-domain.com in ha-datacenter: The guest OS has
    reported an error during quiescing.
    --> The error code was: 2
    --> The error message was: Custom quiesce script failed.
    -->
    [64856B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4b04012e-1178f142-dbd4-0025b31edbef/examplevm/examplevm.vmx'] Retrieved current VM state from foundry 4, 8
    [64754B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4b04012e-1178f142-dbd4-0025b31edbef/examplevm/examplevm.vmx'] Handling message _vmx15: The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing.
    --> The error code was: 5
    --> The error message was: 'VmBackupOnThaw' operation failed.
    -->
    [64754B90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.1)
    [6381CB90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4b04012e-1178f142-dbd4-0025b31edbef/examplevm/examplevm.vmx'] Disconnect check in progress.
    [64754B90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.2)
    [64754B90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.1)
    [64754B90 warning 'Locale'] FormatField: Invalid (vim.vm.Message.2)
    [64754B90 info 'ha-eventmgr'] Event 6154 : Warning message on examplevm on sample-domain.com in ha-datacenter: The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing.
    --> The error code was: 5
    --> The error message was: 'VmBackupOnThaw' operation failed.
     
  • In the vmware.log file, in the home directory of the virtual machine, you see entries similar to:

    vcpu-0| DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/4b04012e-1178f142-dbd4-0025b31edbef/examplevm/examplevm_4-rdmp.vmdk" : closed.
    vcpu-0| SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete done with snapshot 'test': 13394
    vcpu-0| SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 13394 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine. (40).
    vcpu-0| HBACommon: First write on scsi0:1.fileName='/vmfs/volumes/4b04012e-1178f142-dbd4-0025b31edbef/examplevm/examplevm_1-000001.vmdk'
    vcpu-0| DISKLIB-DDB : "longContentID" = "e96a5d6ca819a0596cda422c085effe8" (was "8831e431a7334dbcfce49bccff11351a")
    vcpu-0| DISKLIB-CHAIN : DiskChainUpdateContentID: old=0xff11351a, new=0x85effe8 (e96a5d6ca819a0596cda422c085effe8)
    vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.


Environment

VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Cause

This issue occurs due to a misconfigured custom script.

The error in the Symptoms section indicates that this script (C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\backupScripts.d) was used:
 
if "%1%"=="freeze" goto doFreeze
goto doThaw
:doFreeze
call C:\Scripts\PrePostSnap\PreSnap.cmd
goto Eof
:doThaw
call C:\Scripts\PrePostSnap\PostSnap.cmd
:Eof
 
The issue occurs because the script references the C:\Scripts\PrePostSnap\ directory, which is empty.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, rename the backupScripts.d folder so that the custom script is not used.
 
  1. Log in to the Windows virtual machine that is experiencing the issue.
  2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools.
  3. Rename the backupscripts.d folder to backupscripts.old.
  4. Start Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

 


Additional Information

If you are having a problem with quiesced snapshots in a Linux virtual machine, see:
Snapshot quiescing fails on Linux guests after upgrading to ESXi and VMware Tools 5.1 and 5.5
Snapshot quiescing fails in Linux guests when disk.enableUUID is set to true in the vmx file
静止スナップショットを作成しようとすると、次のエラーが表示されて失敗する： 'VmBackupOnThaw' 操作に失敗しました

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