Disabling Application Level Quiescing During Snapshots of Virtual Machines

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to to disable application level quiescing being used for quiesced snapshots taken of virtual machines in vSphere, in favor of using file level quiescing.

Environment

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

Resolution

To disable application level quiescing for snapshots, use one of the following methods:

• [Windows and Linux OS] Disable application level quiescing using vSphere Client or ESXi host client:

This can only be changed while the VM is powered off.

Log in to the vCenter Server using vSphere Client or the ESXi host with the Host Client.

For the vSphere Client
1. Log in to the vCenter Server using vSphere Client 
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit settings.
3. Navigate to the Advanced Parameters tab.
4. Add or modify the row: disk.EnableUUID with the value FALSE.
5. Click OK to Save to exit.
6. Power the virtual machine back on again.

 

For the host UI
1. Log in to the ESXi host with the Host Client.
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit settings.
3. Click the VM Options tab.
4. Navigate to Advanced > Configuration Parameters > Edit configuration.
5. Add or modify the row: disk.EnableUUID with the value FALSE.
6. Click OK, click Save to exit.
7. Power the virtual machine back on again.

You may need to unregister/reregister the VM from the vCenter inventory if the issue is still present. 

1. Power off the virtual machine.

2. Notate the virtual machine's datastore directory path to the  .vmx file.

3. Right-click the virtual machine.

4. Click Remove from Inventory.

5. Re-Register the virtual machine back to the inventory by navigating to the virtual machine's datastore folder, right-click on the .vmx file, and register
    

• [Windows OS only] Disable VSS application quiescing using the VMware Tools configuration:

  1. Open the file C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Tools\Tools.conf file using a text editor.

  2. If the file does not exist at the location mentioned above, create it.

  3. Add these entries to the file:
     
     [vmbackup]
     vss.disableAppQuiescing = true
      

  4. Save and close the file.

  5. Restart the VMware Tools Service.

     1. Click Start > Run, type services.msc, and click OK.

     2. Right-click the VMware Tools Service and click Restart.

Additional Information