VM fails to power on with Error: "File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen [file] failed"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Provide information on how to troubleshoot and fix virtual machine power on problems when the  "File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen [file] failed" message is presented.

Symptoms:

• Virtual machine (VM) fails to power on
• Error in the vCenter or ESXi host client GUI, or in log files, is " "File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen [file] failed"

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Cause

Potential causes include:

• Data corruption during reclaim disk space of linked clone with sesparse vmdk.
• Bad entries in virtual disk descriptor files (*.vmdk, *.vmx)
• Communication problems between ESXi host and storage array
• ESXi OS problems
• Problems with file locks
• Virtual disk data corruption

Resolution

If the VM is:	Check the following Knowledgebase article:
Horizon View on vSphere version before 6.0 U3	"File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen [file] failed" in vmware.log file
Clone	Unable to power on cloned virtual machine with error: "File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen[file] failed"
Managed by ESXi host version 6.0 or 6.5	Race condition on ESXi 6.0 and 6.5 causing disruption to VMs or hostd management service
Managed by ESXi host version 5.5 through 6.7 with sesparse snapshots on it	Virtual Machines running on an SEsparse snapshot may report guest data inconsistencies

If all else fails, follow the steps in "File system specific implementation of Ioctl[file] failed" error powering on a virtual machine

Additional Information

Failed to power on virtual machine

Impact/Risks:
Ensure you have good backup of your virtual machines. Some recovery procedures can risk making the problem worse if not followed correctly.