HA/FDM fails to restart virtual machines on a failover host and reports the error: Swap initialization failed Lock was not free

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• HA/FDM fails to restart virtual machines after a host failover.
• Virtual machines are not restarted by HA/FDM on a failover host.
• Virtual machines do not automatically restart on a failover host.
• In the primary node log, you see entries similar to:
  
  2013-01-28T11:00:11.556Z [3D8F8B90 verbose 'Execution' opID=host-xxxx:6-0] [FailoverAction::ErrorHandler] Got fault while failing over vm. /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx.vmx: [N3Vim5Fault10FileLockedE:0xd889f68] (state = powering on)
  2013-01-28T11:00:11.557Z [3D8F8B90 verbose 'Execution' opID=host-xxxx:6-0] [ActionScheduler::RemoveAction] Action is removed: opId = host-xxxx:6-0
  2013-01-28T11:00:11.557Z [3D8F8B90 verbose 'Placement' opID=host-xxxx:6-0] [PlacementManagerImpl::HandleFailedPlacement(VmFailover)] Reset state for 1 vms
  2013-01-28T11:00:11.558Z [3D8F8B90 info 'Placement' opID=host-xxxx:6-0] [PlacementManagerImpl::HandleFailedPlacement(VmFailover)] Vm /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx.vmx will be retried with backoff,after a failure at host __localhost__, delay = 60 secs
  2013-01-28T11:00:11.558Z [3D8F8B90 info 'Default' opID=host-xxxx:6-0] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-internal-8358 -- -- CommandActionLRO --
   
• In the fdm.log file, you see an error similar to:
  
  esx-hostname-2013-03-29--08.49/var/log/fdm.log:2013-01-28T11:00:21.652Z [FFFC5B90 info 'Placement'] [PlacementManagerImpl::HandleFailedPlacement(VmFailover)] Vm /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx.vmx will be retried with backoff,after a failure at host host-xxxx, delay = 60 secs
   
• The failover host vmkernel log reports a locked .vswp file and you see an error similar to:
  
  2013-03-29T03:53:31.499Z cpu23:xxxxxxx)WARNING: Swap: vm xxxxxxx: xxxx: Failed to open swap file '/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx.vswp': Lock was not free
  2013-03-29T09:33:11.030Z cpu8:xxxx)WARNING: Swap: xxxx: Failed to initialize swap file '/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx' : Lock was not free
  2013-03-29T09:33:11.030Z cpu8:xxxx)WARNING: Swap: vm xxxx: xxxx: Swap initialization failed Lock was not free
  2013-03-29T09:33:11.030Z cpu12:xxxx)DLX: 3901: vol 'xxxxxxx': [Req mode: 1] Not free; Lock [type 10c00001 offset 36841472 v 171, hb offset 3375104

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Resolution

This is a known issue in ESXi 5.0 and is being investigated by VMware.

 

Currently, there is no workaround for this issue.

Additional Information

To be alerted when this document is updated, click the Subscribe to Article link in the Actions box Troubleshooting VMware High Availability (HA) in VMware vSphere 4.x