Container Volume snapshot objects displayed as Inaccessible Virtual Objects in vSAN Cluster

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

• In vCenter, when navigating to Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Virtual Objects, PVC snapshot objects appear as inaccessible.
• Third party backup solutions(eg. Rubrik) when carrying out snapshot operations on these objects fail with the following error: 
  
  Task name: Delete a virtual object snapshot
Status: A general system error occurred: Could not open or create change tracking file: api = DiskLib_BlockTrackGetEpoch, path->C Value() = /vmfs/volumes/vsan:.../uuid.vmdk
  
  
• vSAN Skyline Health shows no issues. 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server (all versions)

VMware vSAN (all versions)

Cause

Stale or orphaned PVC snapshots remain in the vCenter database and vSAN datastore, resulting in inaccessible objects being reported.

Resolution

To remove stale snapshots and clear inaccessible objects in the vSAN datastore, perform the following steps:

 

 NOTE: Before making any changes, take a backup/snapshot of the vCenter Server Appliance.

 

1. Connect to the vCenter database: 
   
   /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -d VCDB
   
   
2. Get the volume_id of the PVC snapshot
   

   VCDB=# select volume_id, volume_name  from cns.volume_info where volume_name like '%pvc-##############################%';

   
                 volume_id               |               volume_name
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------
 ###########################          | pvc-##############################

   Note: volume_name corresponds to the PVC name displayed in the vCenter GUI.
   
   

3. Run the following query to list all snapshots linked to the PVC volume:

   
    VCDB=#  select volume_id,snapshot_id,create_time from cns.vpx_storage_snapshot_info where volume_id='###########################';

   
                 volume_id               |             snapshot_id              |       create_time
--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------------------
 ##############################       | ##############################       | 2024-01-22 14:11:13.452
 ##############################       | ##############################       | 2024-03-19 11:49:20.201
 ##############################       | ##############################       | 2025-03-06 15:12:39.972 
   
   

4. Delete stale snapshots using vCenter Managed Object Browser (MOB):
   
   
   1. Navigate to: https://<vCenter IP or FQDN>/vslm/mob//?moid=VStorageObjectManager&method=VslmDeleteSnapshot_Task 
      
      

   2. Enter the volume_id and snapshot_id for each stale snapshot.

   3. Click Invoke Method.

   4. Verify that the Delete Snapshot task completes successfully in vCenter.

   5. In the vCenter GUI, navigate to Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Virtual Objects.

   6. Confirm that all previously inaccessible PVC snapshot objects are no longer listed.

Additional Information

First Class Disks report as 'Inaccessible' under 'Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Virtual Objects' while 'Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Skyline Health' does not alert on data unavailability.