Unable to download vmdk files for a Powered ON virtual machine

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Downloading vmdk of a Powered ON virtual machine fails with error "Failed to download "[datastore_name] VM_NAME/VM_NAME-flat.vmdk": java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 500 for URL: http://localhost:1080/external-vecs/http1/vcsa-fqdn/443/folder/VM-NAME/VM-NAME-flat.vmdk?dcPath=cloud&dsName=ds-name&enc=std"
• When we go to the Download location and extract the zip file, the file size shows only 1KB, and Error report.log displays the above error.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

The VMDK files are locked by the ESXi hosts when the virtual machine is powered on. This is an expected behavior.

Resolution

Power Off the virtual machine and then proceed to download the vmdk files of the virtual machine.