Powering on a VM configured with the multi-writer flag enabled fails with error: Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/.disk.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After enabling the multi-writer flag and therefore disabling the simultaneous write protection provided by VMFS, you experience these issues:

• Virtual machine fails to power on.
   
• You see the error:

  An error was received from the ESX host while powering on "vmname"
  Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/.disk.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
  Failed to lock the file

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded

Cause

The cause of this issue is that Change Block Tracking (CBT) is enabled on the virtual machine.
Referring to Enabling or disabling simultaneous write protection provided by VMFS using the multi-writer flag, CBT feature is not supported when using Multi-writer disk.

 CBT can be enabled in two places: In the virtual machine's .vmx file, the parameter is specified by the string "ctk:enabled = true". In the virtual machine's Edit Settings > Options > Advanced > General > Configuration Parameters dialog, the parameter is named ctk:enabled, and is set to true. Each disk on the virtual machine may appear in the Configuration Parameters Dialog having the form scsi0:0.ctkEnabled and be set to true.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must Disable CBT on the virtual machine.
To disable CBT using the Configuration Parameters dialog:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
3. Click the Options tab.
4. Navigate to the Advanced section and click General.
5. Click Configuration Parameters. The Configuration Parameters dialog opens.
6. Click Add Row.
7. Add the ctkEnabled parameter and then set its value to true.
8. Click Add Row, add scsi0:0.ctkEnabled, and set its value to false. Do this for each active disk on the virtual machine, using the correct SCSI address for that disk.
9. Power on the virtual machine.
10. In the home directory of the virtual machine, verify that each hard disk is not associated with a vmname-ctk.vmdk file, where vmname is the name of the virtual machine.

Note: On ESXi 7.x  set ctkEnabled parameter value to False

Additional Information

 

Enabling or disabling Changed Block Tracking (CBT) on virtual machines
Enabling or disabling simultaneous write protection provided by VMFS using the multi-writer flag
VMFS でマルチライター フラグを使用して提供される同時書き込み保護を使用するように構成されている仮想マシンをパワーオンすると、スナップショット エラーで失敗する
为启用了多写入器标记的虚拟机打开电源失败并显示以下错误： 无法打开磁盘“/vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/.disk.vmdk”或其依赖的快照磁盘之一