Delta disk files (REDO logs) are left uncommitted after a failed quiesced snapshot operation

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
When you attempt to create a quiesced snapshot for a virtual machine:

• No snapshot for the virtual machine appears in the snapshot manager.
• The virtual machine appears to run on delta disk files even though no snapshot is shown in the snapshot manager.
• In the /vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine_folder/ vmware.log file you see messages similar to:
  
  <YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| [msg.snapshot.quiesce.vmerr] The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing.
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| --> The error code was: 5
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| --> The error message was: 'VssSyncStart' operation failed: IDispatch error #8449 (0x80042301)
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| ----------------------------------------
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: FINISHING -> ERROR_WAIT
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: ERROR_WAIT -> IDLE
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time>| vcpu-0| ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: IDLE -> DONE</time></time></time></time></time></time></time>
  
  
• In the hostd log file, located at /var/log/vmware/ in 4.x and /var/log/ in 5.x, you see entries similar to:
  
  <YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [5B1A9B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine_ name.vmx' opID=EB81D9EB-000006A4-41] Snapshot guest failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine.
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [5B1A9B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine_ name.vmx' opID=EB81D9EB-000006A4-41] Snapshot guest failed: Error: (13023) Failed to quiesce the virtual machine.
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [5B1A9B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine_ name.vmx' opID=EB81D9EB-000006A4-41] Quiesced guest snapshot failed.
<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> [5B1A9B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine_ name.vmx' opID=EB81D9EB-000006A4-41] Time to gather Snapshot information (did not read from disk, build tree): 0 msecs. needConsolidate is false.</time></time></time></time>

Resolution

For ESXi 5.5 the issue is fixed in ESXi 5.5 Patch 05 which is already released.

VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch ESXi-5.5.0-20150504001-standard

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2114251.

This issue is resolved in ESXi 5.0 Update 2 and ESXi 5.1 Update 1, available at VMware Downloads.

To work around this issue if you cannot upgrade the host, see Committing snapshots when there are no snapshot entries in the Snapshot Manager (1002310).

Additional Information

To determine if your virtual machine is running on delta disk files when there are no snapshot entries in the snapshot manager for that virtual machine, see Determining if there are leftover delta files or snapshots that VMware vSphere or Infrastructure Client cannot detect (1005049).

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Committing snapshots when there are no snapshot entries in the Snapshot Manager
Determining if there are leftover delta files or snapshots that VMware vSphere or Infrastructure Client cannot detect
静止スナップショット操作が失敗した後、差分ディスク ファイル（REDO ログ）がコミットされないままになる