Quiesced snapshot for Linux VM fails with an error " An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Quiesced snapshot fails for Linux VM with the following error : 

Cause

• As Non-quiesced snapshots are successful, the issue is likely within the Guest OS.
• Below log entries may be found in /var/log/vmware-vmsvc-root.log, located in the Guest OS:

[xxxx-xx-xxTxx:51:58.139Z] [ warning] [guestinfo] GuestInfoGetDiskDevice: Missing disk device name; VMDK mapping unavailable for "/var/tmp", fsName: "/dev/mapper/test-test_lv"
[xxxx-xx-xxTxx:52:28.140Z] [ warning] [guestinfo] GuestInfoGetDiskDevice: Missing disk device name; VMDK mapping unavailable for "/var/tmp", fsName: "/dev/mapper/test-test_lv"

OR

[xxxx-xx-xxTxx:05:37.4512] [ warning] [vmbackup] Error trying to perform OP_FREEZE on filesystems. 
[xxxx-xx-xxTxx::05:52.3252] [ warning] [vmsvc] SyncDriver: '/var/tmp' appears locked or frozen by another process. Cannot complete the quiesced snapshot request 

 

 

• Review the mount point status that is reported in the logs: 

[root@<host_name> log]# df -h /var/tmp
Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/test-test_lv  2.0G  1.2G  675M  64% /var/tmp

• Reviewing the LVM configuration for the Guest OS, it is observed that the impacted partition type is LVM:

[root@<host_name> log]# lsblk
NAME           MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda              8:0    0   16G  0 disk
├─sda1           8:1    0    1G  0 part /boot
└─sda2           8:2    0   15G  0 part
  ├─root  253:0    0 13.4G  0 lvm  /
  └─swap  253:1    0  1.6G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
sdb              8:16   0    2G  0 disk
└─<VG_Name>-<LV_Name> 253:2    0    2G  0 lvm  /var/tmp
sdc              8:32   0    2G  0 disk
sr0             11:0    1  4.2G  0 rom

• Inspecting the LVM, LV status is in a suspended state with the following warning : 

[root@<host_name> log]# lvdisplay /dev/mapper/<LV_Name>
  WARNING: Device /dev/sdb has size of 4194304 sectors which is smaller than corresponding PV size of 6289408 sectors. Was device resized?
  One or more devices used as PVs in VG test have changed sizes.
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/<VG_Name>/<LV_Name>
  LV Name                <LV_Name>
  VG Name                <VG_Name>
  LV UUID                <LV-UUID-#####-#####-######-######>
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time <hostname>, YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss -0400
  LV Status              suspended
  # open                 1
  LV Size                <2.78 GiB
  Current LE             711
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     8192
  Block device           253:2

Resolution

Involve the Guest OS Vendor to resolve the underlying LVM issue.