Large snapshot delete operations time out in VirtualCenter

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Large snapshot delete operations time out in vCenter.

• The vpxd log contains entries similar to:
  
  

  vpxd-7.log 3642 [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.500 'App' 3416 info] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN
  task-9756 -- vm-9257 -- vim.vm.Snapshot.remove --
  C8FFE4B7-A915-4F34-9D75-148BD6526DF2
  vpxd-7.log 4459 [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.859 'App' 3416 info] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH
  task-9756 -- vm-9257 -- vim.vm.Snapshot.remove --
  C8FFE4B7-A915-4F34-9D75-148BD6526DF2
  vpxd-7.log 4460 [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.859 'App' 3416 info] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR
  task-9756 -- vm-9257 -- vim.vm.Snapshot.remove: vim.fault.Timedout:

  
  
  Note: This log entry indicates that the operation takes more than 15 minutes, which is the vCenter default timeout period.
• If a snapshot operation was created as a result of a VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) backup, the VCB job fails
• If a VCB jobs fails, the pre_*.log file for the backup job reports:
  
  

  pre_xx-xxxnnnnnnnnnn.log:['vcbMounter' nnnn error] Error: Other error encountered: Snapshot creation failed: Operation failed since another task is in progress.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Resolution

Note: Most of the snapshot related issues are improved with changes to the Delete All snapshot process in the patch releases for ESX/ESXi 7.x and 8.x. For more information see:

• Best practices for using VMware snapshots in the vSphere environment
• Consolidating/Committing snapshots in VMware ESXi

A virtual machine that has a snapshot backed by one or more large transaction disks (-delta files) can take longer to commit than the default timeout period of 15 minutes.

 

Even though VirtualCenter reports the operation as timed out, it is continuing to consolidate on the ESX host. For very large -delta files, the operation can take hours to complete. As a result, subsequent snapshot operations (such as those requested by VCB) may fail. To workaround this issue, point VCB to the ESX host directly instead of through vCenter.

 

To monitor the progress of the snapshot deletion, see Command to monitor snapshot deletion in VMware ESX/ESXi .

 

For details on increasing the vCenter timeout, see vCenter operation times out with the error: Operation failed since another task is in progress .

 

For details on consolidating snapshots manually, see Consolidating/Committing snapshots in VMware ESXi.