The VM Fails to Power On Due to "System Cannot Find the File Specified" or Other "File Not Found" Errors

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides solutions for situations where a virtual machine (VM) fails to power on due to missing or invalid virtual machine disk (VMDK) descriptor files or snapshot chain issues. The errors typically encountered include:

"Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/volume/vm/vm-000002.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on."
"Cannot open disk '/vmfs/volumes/volume/vm/vm-000002.vmdk': The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created (18)."

In the VM's vmware.log, you may see messages similar to:

vmx| DISKLIB-LINK : "myvm.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).
vmx| DISKLIB-CHAIN : "myvm.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).

 

Symptoms:

The virtual machine cannot power on and reports errors about missing files or disk dependencies. The error typically involves missing VMDK descriptor or data files, or an inconsistent snapshot chain.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

These errors can occur due to:

• Missing or corrupted virtual machine disk (VMDK) descriptor or data files.
• Inconsistent snapshot chains where a child disk depends on a missing or modified parent disk.

Resolution

Steps to Resolve "File Not Found" Errors When Powering On a VM:

 

1. Verify the Presence of Virtual Machine Disk Files

• For each disk, including snapshot disks, verify that the following files are present:
  • Base Disk Descriptor File: vmName.vmdk
  • Base Disk Data File: vmName-flat.vmdk or vmName-separse.vmdk
  • Snapshot Disk Descriptor File: vmName-######.vmdk
  If any of these files are missing, the disk may need to be recreated or restored.

2. Recreate Missing Descriptor Files

• Base Disk Descriptor File: If the descriptor file for the base disk is missing, you can recreate it. To do so, follow this procedure:
  • Recreate a missing virtual machine disk descriptor file
• Snapshot Disk Descriptor File: If the descriptor file for a snapshot disk is missing, follow these steps:
  • Recreate a missing virtual disk (VMDK) descriptor file for delta disks

3. Missing Data Files

• If data files, such as -flat.vmdk, -delta.vmdk, or -sesparse.vmdk files are missing, the VM may need to be restored from a backup or the original data source.

4. Check for Inconsistent Snapshot Chains

• If you encounter errors regarding "The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created," you may need to consolidate the snapshot chain or restore the VM from a backup.

Additional Information

Raw Device Mapping (RDM) Disks:

• For RDM disks, there are no -flat or -sesparse files for the base disk.
  • Physical-mode RDM: Files are in the form of vmName-rdmp.vmdk.
  • Virtual-mode RDM: Files are in the form of vmName-rdm.vmdk.
  If the RDM descriptor file is missing, it can also be recreated. For more details, see:
  • Recreate pass-through Raw Device Mapping (RDM) files for a virtual machine

Other Useful Documentation:

• Verifying ESX/ESXi virtual machine file integrity
• Powering on a virtual machine on an upgraded host fails with the error: File [VMFS volume] VM-name/VM-name.vmdk was not found
• The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created error

 For more information, see:

• For more information on an issue with similar symptoms, see An ESXi/ESX host reports VMFS heap warnings when hosting virtual machines that collectively use 4 TB or 20 TB of virtual disk storage (1004424).