Failed to quiesce encrypted virtual machine with windows guest os.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When a virtual machine with windows guest is encrypted with KMS encryption it fails to quiesce.

Or, When there are changes to the VM storage policy which uses KMS encryption, it fails to quiesce.

Cloning of such virtual machines also fails.

• Below error can be seen in vCenter server vpxd.log

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ error vpxd[06617] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=m1jcsc5p-15821002-auto-9f3kb-h5:71079550-94-01] [VpxLRO] Unexpected Exception: N3Vim5Fault23ApplicationQuiesceFault9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.ApplicationQuiesceFault
--> )
-->

• Vmware.log says that failed to initialize quiesce:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vmx - SnapshotVMX_TakeSnapshot start: 'VM-NAME, deviceState=0, lazy=0, quiesced=1, forceNative=0, tryNative=1, saveAllocMaps=0
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - Msg_Post: Warning
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - [msg.snapshot.quiesce.startfail] Failed to start quiescing operation in the virtual machine.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05)+ vcpu-4 - The error message was: Error initializing quiesce operation.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine (29).

• vmware-vmsvc-SYSTEM.log from the guest logs:

 [vmbackup] [3556] Requested quiescing cannot be initialized

Environment

VMware vCenter server 7.x
VMware vCenter server 8.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

As per Application quiesced snapshots are not supported for encrypted VMs.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere-sdks-tools/8-0/virtual-disk-development-kit-programming-guide.html

We can take the filesystem consistent snapshot instead.

App consistent to filesystem consistent fallback generally happens automatically. We don't need to make any changes to guest side.

Resolution

In such cases, issue is with VMware snapshot provider service.

While installing VMware tools, could be an issue with VMware snapshot provider service.

Or the VMware snapshot provider service is disabled by default.

To resolve the issue ,

1. We need to enable the VMware snapshot provider service.

    Go to services.msc in windows OS

    Right click VMware snapshot provider service> go to properties:

   

    Change the startup type to Automatic and then start the service.

    Re-attempt clone or snapshot with quiesce, it will be successful.

2. If enabling VMware snapshot provider service fails, reinstall VMware tools on the guest os and check if the service is up and running.

Additional Information

App-quiescing is disabled in ESXi host side for encrypted VM and filesystem quiescing is forcibly requested (which requires VMware snapshot provider working well) when taking quiesced snapshot