Quiesced snapshot fails in Windows VMs with error " Snapshot operation error: IDispatch error #8788 (0x80042454)"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Windows VMs encounter quiesced snapshot failures with the error "Snapshot operation error: IDispatch error #8788 (0x80042454)"

Guest OS vmware tools logs (c:/Windows/Temp/vmware-vmsvc-SYSTEM.log) reports the below warning. 

[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.zzzZ] [ message] [vmbackup] [4888] Snapshot operation error: IDispatch error #8788 (0x80042454)
[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.zzzZ] [ message] [vmbackup] [4888] Snapshot operation error: IDispatch error #8788 (0x80042454)

This indicates that the ESXi has dispatched the snapshot request to the Guest OS, however it failed within the Guest OS.

Environment

Microsoft Windows Guest OS

Cause

The quiescing operation fails within the Guest OS.

The error code 0x80042454 is referred in the below Virtual Disk Service of Microsoft (VDS) portal.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-vds/5102cc53-3143-4268-ba4c-6ea39e999ab4  

0x80042454 VDS_E_MISSING_DISK

Resolution

• Review the Disk configuration within Guest OS and remove any stale references
• Engage the Guest OS support if required.

Additional Information

The VDS portal of Microsoft has many other error codes as well and it might be useful to refer it for different codes as needed based on the vmsvc logs.